Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Published: 2008-01-24
Total Pages: 44
ISBN-13: 9780215038197
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This report, from the Committee of Public Accounts, follows on from an NAO report, (HC 604, session 2006-07, ISBN 9780102945614), and examines the prevalence and costs of dementia, diagnosis and early intervention, access to and quality of support services, and experiences of people with dementia in hospital and care homes. Dementia is a term for a range of progressive, terminal organic brain diseases. It affects about 560,000 people in England and costs the economy some £14 billion a year. The Committee has set out a number of conclusions and recommendations, including: that dementia has not been an NHS priority though, following the NAO report, the Department of Health is developing a National Dementia Strategy; that there is no single individual with responsibility or accountability for improving dementia services; that between a half and two-thirds of people with dementia never receive a formal diagnosis; that there is poor awareness amongst the public and some professionals of dementia; that people with dementia and their carers should be given a single health or social care professional contact point to improve the co-ordination of their care service; that between half and two-thirds of all carers do not receive the carer's assessment to which they are entitled; that 62 per cent of care home residents are currently estimated to have dementia, but less than 28 per cent of care home places are registered to provide specialist dementia care; that hospital care for people with dementai is often not well managed, increasing the risk of longer hospital stays, admission to a care home and a deterioration in the patient's health.