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 improve dementia diagnosis rates in Henley and Thame constituency.

The Henley and Thame constituency lies within the county of Oxfordshire, where the performance in August 2024 was 63%. The performance across the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and West Berkshire Integrated Care Board is 62.6%, and across the NHS South East region is 63%. Oxfordshire’s performance has improved over the last 12 months by 0.2%. The national target for dementia diagnosis is that 66.7% of the prevalent population has a diagnosis of dementia. The current England wide position is 65.4%.

We are currently working with our local population, including patients, carers, Age UK, and clinicians in primary care, mental health services, and acute hospital services, to develop a new strategy, Living Well with Dementia, to be implemented from April 2025. Within this work we are seeking to increase the rate of diagnosis by streamlining the referral processes into diagnostic and memory clinics, and alignment with other services that might be needed. We also work closely with our voluntary and community partners to improve access to post-diagnostic support, offering advice and practical help to patients, and their carers and wider family.