To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the recommendations in the Alzheimer’s Society report Improving access to a timely and accurate diagnosis in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, published in May, on ways to improve and futureproof the system for dementia diagnosis.
My Lords, while no formal assessment has been made of the Alzheimer’s Society report, we welcome research that will help us to improve and future-proof the system for dementia diagnosis. NHS England remains committed to the national ambition of diagnosing two-thirds of people over 65 years of age who are estimated to have dementia. Timely diagnosis of dementia is vital to ensure access to advice, information, care and support to help persons live well with dementia.
I thank the Minister for his response. There has been some hopeful news regarding dementia in recent months that suggests that we are potentially on the cusp of new treatments that, while not curing dementia, could help delay or at least reduce the level of significance of the disease. But that is effective as a form of treatment only if it is not too late in the progression of the disease for the individual. In light of the report that suggests that a lot more work needs to be done on dementia diagnosis, can the Minister outline what specific steps the Government are taking to improve early diagnosis for dementia?
I thank the noble Lord for his question and pay tribute to his work on the APPG on Dementia. Timely diagnosis of dementia is vital to ensure that a person with dementia can access advice, information, care and support to help them live well with the condition and remain independent for as long as possible. NHS England is committed to increasing dementia diagnosis rates. NHS England’s 2023/24 Priorities and Operational Planning Guidance provides a clear direction for ICBs to support the delivery of timely diagnosis with systems.
My Lords, will the Minister tell the House what has happened to the pilots that were announced, due to start earlier in the year, about the identification of dementia? In particular, will they deal with the very large variation in diagnosis rates across the country?
The noble Lord raises a very important point. He is right that there is substantial variation across integrated care boards in dementia diagnosis rates. NHS England has commissioned a dementia intelligence network to develop a resource to investigate that very issue. It is important that we learn from the very best so that we can put in place an industry-standard best practice to make sure that we get the very best across the country.
My Lords, is the Minister concerned that there may be misdiagnosis of Alzheimer’s in people who do not speak English as their first language because of the use of verbal cognitive function tests? What are the Government doing to ensure that appropriate tests are available for people from all the different linguistic groups that have a significant presence in the United Kingdom?
We try to diagnose right first time, but the noble Lord mentioned the important point of different languages. I do not have a specific answer on what we are doing about that, so I will write to him.
My Lords, timely and accurate diagnosis of dementia is also important to the families of such patients, who are often providing care in very difficult circumstances. While commitment to patient confidentiality is of course important, does the Minister agree that such information must be shared as soon as possible with the families who are providing care?
The noble Baroness is entirely correct. We want a society where every person with dementia and their families and carers receive high-quality, compassionate care from diagnosis through to the end of life. NHS England is committed to delivering high-quality care and support for every person with dementia, and central to that is the provision of personalised care and support, with planning for post-diagnostic support. This is a terrible disease and not one hat fits all, so, as the noble Baroness points out, we have to personalise it wherever we can.
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his answers on the diagnosis of dementia. Will he also outline what is being done to measurably improve the structures of support for those diagnosed with dementia, not least in the early stages, given the increasing social isolation that sufferers experience and the onerous costs they must often bear? This is increasingly evident in our parishes, in our wider communities, in the experience of clergy up and down the land and in my own diocese of Southwark.
The right reverend Prelate raises a very important point. I refer him to my previous answer, but he is absolutely right to point out his diocese and parishes across the land. The NHS can do only so much, but it is important to have communities coming together. In my experience, the Church does a fantastic job, including the community groups that church organisations and others have at the very local level. Not everything can be done by the NHS, but people in communities can help carers, families and those with dementia to a very high level, in my experience.
My Lords, people with learning disabilities are more likely to develop dementia, but particularly in complex cases of learning disabilities the symptoms are very often masked. What can be done to help those who care for people with learning disabilities to spot symptoms early on, so that diagnosis can take place and treatment can begin?
The noble Baroness is exactly right. She raises a point about carers. Carers are not professional people; they are loving partners who vary in their experience and knowledge of this disease. I do not have a specific answer to her question other than to say that, generally, carers are far more recognised than they used to be and do a fantastic job. In fact, we would not be able to look after those 600,000 people in the country without those individual carers. I will write to her with a more specific answer, but she is absolutely right that carers are key to the care of people with dementia.
Is not the key word “timely”? In relation to that word, is it not time that the junior doctors throughout the United Kingdom recognised that timeliness in relation to many conditions is being jeopardised, so long as they continue to go on strike week after week? Should they not recognise the Hippocratic oath that they took in the first place to do no harm to their patients?