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 (a) expand capacity in dementia diagnostics and (b) facilitate access to new dementia treatments when available.

The Government is committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the National Health Service to increase diagnostic capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services through investment in new capacity, including magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scanners.

Our Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, builds on the investments already made with an ambitious vision for the future of diagnostic testing. This will include more straight-to-test pathways, increasing and expanding community diagnostic centres (CDCs) and better use of technology. With 170 community diagnostic centres (CDCs) due to be up and running by the end of March 2025, CDCs can take on more of the growing diagnostic demand within elective care. We will also deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding several existing CDCs and building up to five new ones.

NHS England has a dedicated team in place which has been planning for the roll out of new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, if and when they are approved for use. To prepare for the new generation of dementia treatments in development, NHS England is working to ensure the diagnostic and treatment capacity, clinical pathway redesign and investment are in place to support the adoption of any new licensed and National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended treatments as soon as possible.

NICE and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency have piloted enhanced information sharing arrangements for new disease-modifying treatments enabling the organisations to fully align their processes and make faster decisions on the use of these medicines within the NHS in England.