NHS: Dementia Treatment Trials

Lord Winston Excerpts

Monday 22nd June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I believe that we have upped the pace. It is very important, as I know the noble Earl is aware, to go with evidence-based solutions. Indeed, when I speak to the point about an evidence base, that is why we have several research initiatives, including, as I mentioned, the dementia trials network and the trials accelerator. Both of those are speeding up the set-up of early and late-phase clinical trials. We have already gone well under our ambition of 150 days to set up, at 122. We are positioning ourselves well to be a global leader in a way that I am sure the noble Earl would want us to be.

[Lord Winston (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree with me that, while the noble Lord, Lord Patel, is quite keen on screening tests, we can both agree that screening tests have all sorts of major disadvantages, such as false diagnosis or unclear diagnosis? If we are not careful and do not have a test that is really reliable, we could end up with much more unnecessary worry for people who, for all sorts of reasons, believe that they have dementia when actually they are simply being a bit forgetful. That is important for health.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My noble friend makes a very fair observation that probably applies to many situations. When we talk about diagnosis, we are talking about getting the right people diagnosed, and quickly. That is why the modern service framework, as I mentioned earlier, will be developed and is being developed with partners and those with a particular interest. That will make sure that any interventions not only improve dementia care but improve diagnosis and the waiting times for diagnosis.