Dementia patients ‘need better access to services’

The all-party parliamentary group on dementia found there were “shocking variations” of waiting times for memory services across the country, with some patients waiting a few weeks and others waiting for more than a year before they are seen by specialists.

The average waiting period was three months, the report by the parliamentary group found.

Having access to memory services is a key part of the diagnostic process and delayed diagnosis is detrimental to patients, the authors cautioned as they called for “major improvements” to local services.

The group said local services should be signed to a national register to raise the standards and improve accountability. Baroness Sally Greengross, chair of the group, said: “We urgently need to make early diagnosis for people with dementia a priority and memory services are a key part of this.

“The Prime Minister has recently acknowledged the importance of improving quality of care for people with the condition, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

“Improving diagnosis rates will mean more people with dementia being able to access support and treatment that can help them and their family achieve the best possible quality of life.”

The Alzheimer’s Society claims that just over two fifths of dementia sufferers are ever formally diagnosed. The charity’s chief executive Jeremy Hughes said: “What we are hearing today is that many people are being let down by services that are meant to be helping them get a timely dementia diagnosis.”