Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what strategies are in place to encourage collaboration between optometrists and GPs to streamline the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative conditions.

We want a society where every person, including those with neurodegenerative conditions, receives high-quality, compassionate continuity of care, with their families and carers supported. Through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the Department is also investing in research on novel means of detecting neurodegenerative diseases. For example, the NIHR has invested almost £11 million to fund six projects to improve diagnosis in dementia until 2028.The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including neurological and systemic diseases.

To improve secure access to linked health datasets across the National Health Service in England, the Government and NHS England are investing in a network of Secure Data Environments in England at a national and regional level, through the data for Research and Development programme. The Data for R&D Programme also funds the NHS DigiTrials service, which supports both clinical trials and cohort studies to recruit and follow up on consented participants, supporting the Our Future Health Study to recruit over 1.5 million participants.

The Government is supporting the work of studies of patients who have consented to share their detailed health information for longitudinal research; the Secretary of State has announced his intention to direct NHS England to improve the way data can be made to studies where patients have consented to share it for research.

There is currently no NHS screening programme for the early detection of neurodegenerative diseases; therefore, there are no plans to facilitate the integration of eye scan technology into screening for dementia.

The UK National Screening Committee’s (UK NSC) last review in 2019 recommended not to screen for dementia as the there were no screening tests which could find people with dementia before they show symptoms, and there was no evidence that current treatments for dementia were effective.

The UK NSC has commissioned an evidence map to determine the volume and type of evidence available on the accuracy of screening tests used to detect mild cognitive impairment and/or any type of dementia, as well as pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions offered to treat asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic adults with either condition.

The ability of optometrists to detect neurodegenerative conditions is not yet fully developed and therefore there are no plans in place to encourage collaboration between optometrists and general practitioners to streamline early diagnosis of such conditions.