Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to issue updated guidance on the placement of dementia patients in hospital wards.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidance on dementia states which aspects of care should be expected to ensure quality dementia care in hospital. This includes appropriate admission to hospital, comprehensive assessments, and personal history taking. Further information on the NICE’s dementia guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng97

The NICE’s guidance on the transition between inpatient hospital settings and community or care home settings for adults with social care needs covers the transition between inpatient hospital settings and community or care homes for adults with social care needs. Further information on the NICE’s transition guidance is available at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng27

The NICE’s guidance will be reviewed if there is new evidence that is likely to change the recommendations. The 10-Year Health Plan will address the challenges diagnosed by Lord Darzi and set the vision for what good joined-up care looks like for people with a combination of complex health and care needs. It will set out how we support and enable health and social care services to work together better to provide that joined-up care. The Government is launching an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards delivering a National Care Service.

To improve care for patients with dementia, NHS England's RightCare team has refreshed the RightCare Dementia Scenario. The scenario works through the dementia well pathway journey, from diagnosing well through to dying well, detailing optimal and suboptimal approaches, with associated costings for each.