Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Baroness Burt of Solihull and Paul Burstow

Tuesday 21st February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Lorely Burt (Solihull) (LD)]

12. What steps he is taking to improve the standard of dementia care in hospitals.

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Paul Burstow)]

As many as four out of 10 people in hospital have dementia, and people with dementia stay longer in hospital. We know that there is much room for improvement. That is why we have set a new national goal for hospitals actively to identify people with dementia.

[Lorely Burt]

According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ report on dementia care in hospitals, only one in three staff said that they felt that their training and development in dementia was sufficient. What action is the Minister taking better to equip staff to be able to take care of dementia patients in future?

[Paul Burstow]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. Training is certainly one of the issues highlighted by the audit. We are taking a number of steps. We are working with the Royal College of Nursing, which has developed an online dementia information resource; we have been working with Skills for Care and Skills for Health to provide a series of training workshops for staff; we have been working with Oxford Deanery to trial a new approach to dementia education and training for GPs; and we are funding another audit to make sure that we keep track of the improvements that we expect to see across the NHS.