Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of diagnostic hubs in diagnosing dementia in West Yorkshire.
Community diagnostic centres (CDCs) offer a variety of tests, including several recommended for use in diagnosing of dementia. CDCs are an essential part of our plans to separate urgent and elective care and thereby reduce waits for diagnosis.
NHS England continues to monitor the monthly dementia diagnosis rate and analyse trends at national, regional and integrated care board (ICB) level. It has commissioned the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities to investigate the underlying variation in dementia diagnosis rates, including by rurality, ethnicity, and age. This work will provide context for variation and enable targeted investigation and provision of support at local level, and is available via the FutureNHS collaboration platform.