Study reveals dementia diagnosis deficit

By The Press Association19th February 2015News EnglandDementia, Mental Health, News England, Older People

One in seven patients with a history of dementia are not being identified as having the condition when they are admitted to hospital in England, a study suggests.

Failure to identify dementia is having a negative effect on patients’ length of stay, mortality, falls and re-admissions compared to those who are realised to have it, a report by healthcare information specialists CHKS found.

But researchers also found there has been a year-on-year improvement, with 85% of patients being identified as having dementia in 2013 compared to 83% the previous year and 77% in 2011.

The scale of variation between trusts was significant with one trust identifying 96% of patients with a history of dementia on admission compared to just 73% at another.

Jason Harries, managing director of CHKS, said: “Our latest study emphasises the importance of making sure that once a diagnosis of dementia has been made and recorded in the notes, everyone involved in the current care pathway recognises this.

“The data shows us that when dementia is not recognised in this way, care tends to be worse.”

CHKS made the findings after analysing research by the Alzheimer’s Society, which looked at all acute trusts in England.