Home monitoring scheme set to tackle dementia care spending

A staggering £23.45m is expected to be spent in the borough this financial year caring for dementia sufferers and older people with other mental health problems, and a report warns this will rise by a further £6.1m a year unless action is taken.

The telehealth project – which will initially work with at least 30 people with dementia – sets out to allow more of them to be cared for at home and therefore reduce the number of costly hospital admissions.

Telehealth technology allows patients’ vital signs to be monitored remotely, helping to them to stay at home and reduce the number of home visits carried out by GPs and nurses.

It will also see a number of measures to reduce the pressure on home-based carers, including fitting sensors on doors and beds to allow easier monitoring of patients’ movements, and lights being fitted to guide patients to the bathroom.

A report to the health, care and wellbeing overview and scrutiny sub-committee at East Riding Council predicts a further rise in the high numbers of dementia sufferers in the area, while highlighting a series of failings in treatment and diagnosis, both locally and nationally.

The number of people with late onset dementia in the East Riding is estimated at 4,564, a figure that is expected to rise by 78 per cent to 8,130 by 2025.

This is based on about 223 new cases each year, which the Alzheimer’s Research Trust estimates will cost £27,647 per case.

At present the costs are roughly shared between the council and NHS East Riding, although the biggest single outlay is the authority’s £10.5m bill for residential and nursing care.

Better and earlier diagnosis will improve care and support.

Two thirds of people with dementia never receive a diagnosis and the UK is in the bottom third of European countries for diagnosing and treating people with dementia. Nationally, only a third of doctors feel they are adequately trained in diagnosing dementia.

The report says the East Riding has a “poor rate” of recording diagnosis on GP registers, with 28.3 per cent of cases being recorded compared to a 44 per cent average across Yorkshire and the Humber.

About 40 per cent of hospital patients are thought to have dementia, rising to 48 per cent of those aged 80 or over.

Nationally, people with dementia account for more than 100,000 occupied bed days at a cost of more than £21m.

A report by the Royal College of Physicians found that wards were “ill equipped” to care adequately for dementia sufferers, and those admitted to acute beds face “poor” outcomes with both their mental and physical health likely to deteriorate.

An audit by the Department of Medicine for the Elderly at Hull Royal Infirmary found that – of the 118 patients they sampled – 29 per cent had dementia and a further nine per cent each had a long-term undiagnosed cognitive problem.

Altogether, 80 per cent of them had no input from mental health services – even though this was likely to have reduced stays for 68 per cent of the patients.

Further concerns cover the administration of drugs.

An estimated 180,000 dementia sufferers are on anti-psychotic drugs, despite the drugs only being beneficial in a third of the cases. There are 1,800 “excess” deaths each year because of the prescription of anti-psychotic drugs.

The results of the telehealth project will be evaluated by Hull University.

Rosy Pope, head of adult services at the council, said: “We are very committed to carers and recognise the huge role they play. Most carers will say I want to look after my husband, my wife, my father at home as long as I possibly can. Whatever we can do to assist that caring burden we will.”