MPs claim Government failing to make dementia care a priority

In a damning report, members of the Commons Public Accounts Committee said there was a lack of direction, even though the Government admits it faces a huge challenge with dementia care.

The condition, which the committee describes as "hidden" much like cancer was in the 1950s, should have the same high profile as stroke and cancer while immediate action is needed to implement the National Dementia Strategy published last year.

Dementia costs 8.2bn a year in direct health and social care costs but much of this is spent in the later stages of the disease.

The report said the Department of Health launched its "ambitious and comprehensive" five-year National Dementia Strategy in February 2009 yet not much had happened in the past year.

This is despite 150m worth of initial funding being given to health trusts to help implement the strategy over the first two years.

Committee members said the Department of Health "does not know how the first 60m of dementia funding has been spent by primary care trusts" and it added: "the Department has failed to match its commitments to raise the quality and priority of dementia care with a robust approach to implementation. It has failed to ignite passion, pace and drive or to align leadership, funding, incentives and information to help deliver the strategy.

"It also delayed the appointment of a national clinical director, a role that has proved very effective in developing and implementing other national strategies, until January 2010.

"Furthermore, improvements that we identified in 2007 as urgently needed, some of which could have been adopted straight away, have not been afforded the urgency and priority that we had been led to expect."

Tory MP Edward Leigh, chairman of the cross-party public accounts committee, said: "At an earlier hearing, the Department left us in no doubt that it was going to make dementia a national priority, in the same way that cancer and stroke are national priorities. But it still hasn't. This cannot continue."

An estimated 600,000 people in England have some form of dementia and the numbers are expected the double.

Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said: "Dementia costs the UK economy 2bn each year. With the right investment in research – from government, charities and others – we can beat this terrible set of diseases."

Janet Davies, executive director of nursing and service delivery at the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said: "Training and education for healthcare staff working in all settings is absolutely vital if care for dementia patients is to improve.

"Greater investment is also needed for specialist dementia nurses, who provide invaluable support for dementia patients, their carers and families.

"Ahead of the general election, we urge all political parties to ensure that every patient with dementia has guaranteed access to specialist nursing care."