Dementia: Health Services

(asked on 4th March 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that there is not a backlog of treatment for dementia as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Helen Whately Portrait
Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 16th March 2021

NHS England and NHS Improvement continue to monitor the dementia diagnosis rates at a regional and local sustainability and transformation partnership level to aid targeted efforts to support recovery of referrals, diagnosis, and, where appropriate, support access to post diagnostic support.

NHS England and NHS Improvement continue to encourage memory assessment services to provide safe and person-centred assessment and diagnosis via remote methods or in face-to-face consultations as appropriate during the pandemic. Webinars and guidance have been provided to support evolving best practice and a person-centred approach to diagnosis and NHS England and Improvement have undertaken work to raise general practice awareness of the continued availability of remote and face-to-face assessments in Memory Assessment Services.

NHS England and NHS Improvement’s personalised care team has also worked with the Dementia Change Action Network, Alzheimer’s Society to better define and improve access to pre-diagnostic support for people waiting longer for a memory assessment and diagnosis as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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