NHS: Dementia Treatment Trials Debate
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Baroness Murphy
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NHS: Dementia Treatment Trials
Baroness Murphy Excerpts(1 month, 1 week ago)
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Baroness Murphy
To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to assess and prioritise investment in trials of new dementia treatments in the NHS.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Baroness Merron) (Lab)
My Lords, across the last five financial years, the Government have spent more than £555 million on dementia research, including into dementia diagnostics and trials of potential treatments. We are working for Britain to be at the forefront of transforming treatments and a world leader in dementia trials expertise. We are prioritising that through investment in the UK Dementia Trials Network and the Dementia Trials Accelerator.
Baroness Murphy (CB)
I am very grateful to the Minister for that update. Dementia is now the most prevalent mental disorder in the country and the leading cause of death in women. I think she will agree with me that, at the moment, only 30% of dementia cases ever get diagnosed. If we are to benefit from some of the new developments in treatments, which I recognise are not yet as efficacious as we would like, there has to be some more investment in ensuring that people get an early diagnosis, so that patients can not only be linked into trials as they come up but get the help and social support that they—and their families, of course—will need. Does the Minister have any plans to increase the dementia diagnosis rate?
Baroness Merron (Lab)
We do indeed, and I certainly agree with the noble Baroness. A timely diagnosis is absolutely vital to make sure that people with dementia can access everything they need, live well and remain independent for as long as possible. We are committed to recovering the dementia diagnosis rate to the national figure of 66.7%, and as of 31 March the figure stood at 66.3%. That is an increase from the time before and we will continue, through developing the modern service framework, to drive that upwards.