Written Evidence Apr. 26 2024
Inquiry: Disability employmentFound: freezing - tremor, painful muscle cramps, difficulties speaking and swallowing, anxiety, depression, dementia
Mentions:
1: Bob Blackman (Con - Harrow East) and if we are given 23 May, there will be a debate on UK arms exports to Israel and inequalities in dementia - Speech Link
Asked by: Baroness Goudie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the NHS is prepared for the arrival of new diagnostic innovations for dementia.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service is a world leader in rolling out innovative treatments and has established a dedicated national programme team which is working in partnership with other national agencies and with local health systems to prepare for the potential roll out of new treatments for use in the earlier stages of Alzheimer’s disease. These plans assume that, if these new treatments are approved by the regulators, significant additional diagnostic capacity, including amyloid positron emission tomography–computed tomography, lumbar puncture and magnetic resonance imaging, will be needed both to identify patients who are most able to benefit and to provide important safety monitoring.
The national programme team is conducting preparations across the country, working alongside clinicians and local teams to identify where further funding will be required to roll out the additional tests and services needed to introduce these new and complex treatments.
NHS England is also working with partner agencies to support and inform further research into other diagnostic modalities, including blood-based biomarker and digital tests, which will help improve identification and management of Alzheimer’s disease.
Oral Evidence Apr. 24 2024
Committee: Work and Pensions Committee (Department: Department for Work and Pensions)Found: I am conscious that yesterday one of the Prime Minister’s dementia advisers resigned specifically
Mentions:
1: Damian Collins (Con - Folkestone and Hythe) with 1966, five members of England’s World cup-winning team have subsequently died as a consequence of dementia - Speech Link
2: Stuart Andrew (Con - Pudsey) The recent examples of dementia-related deaths of former footballers are of great concern to Members - Speech Link
3: Stuart Andrew (Con - Pudsey) welfare with the PFA’s chief executive, including the football brain health fund for players affected by dementia - Speech Link
4: Stuart Andrew (Con - Pudsey) that the council is currently considering any connection between neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia - Speech Link
5: Stuart Andrew (Con - Pudsey) Health and Social Care is formulating the Government’s new strategy on acquired brain injury, including dementia - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Daisy Cooper (LD - St Albans) Yesterday, one of the Prime Minister’s own dementia advisers resigned, saying that the Government’s treatment - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Paul Maynard (Con - Blackpool North and Cleveleys) terminal illness, I imagine that the provisions would certainly include illnesses such as advanced cancer, dementia - Speech Link
Oral Evidence Apr. 23 2024
Committee: Health and Social Care Committee (Department: Department of Health and Social Care)Found: In the last few years there has been a lot of emphasis, as I have already said, on frailty, dementia
Apr. 23 2024
Source Page: A9 Dualling Programme and A75 Upgrade: EIR releaseFound: information etc) PB4: Noise reduction Impact on sleep disturbance, amenity, AMI, stroke and dementia
Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help improve the knowledge of GPs on the symptoms of young onset dementia.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We want all general practitioners to have received appropriate training, in order to provide high quality care to people with dementia, regardless of the person’s age or individual needs.
The standard of training for health care professionals is the responsibility of the health care independent statutory regulatory bodies who set the outcome standards expected at undergraduate level and approve courses and Higher Education Institutions to write and teach the curricula content that enables their students to meet the regulators outcome standards.
Whilst not all curricula may necessarily highlight a specific condition, they all nevertheless emphasize the skills and approaches a Health Care Practitioner must develop in order to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients, including for dementia.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 30 June 2023, sets out NHS England’s commitment to improving training for workers caring for people with dementia.
The Long Term plan also sets out the plan for there to be more healthcare staff working in and with GP practices, which will mean people will be able to get an appointment with the right professional depending on their needs. This means that those with dementia will be able to access the most appropriate support more quickly.
The plan will include more GPs, nurses and 20,000 additional pharmacists, physiotherapists, paramedics, physician associates and social prescribing link. These bigger teams of staff will work with other local services to make sure people, including those with dementia, get better access to a wider range of support for their needs.
We are seeing more people from younger cohorts with multimorbidity. Multimorbidity challenges the specialised approach to medicine, which has improved our ability to successfully treat single diseases. The Long Term Plan also addresses the increased need for medical and other clinical professionals with generalist and core skills to manage and support patients with seemingly unrelated diseases.
There are also a variety of resources available on the NHS England E-learning for Health platform, including a programme on dementia care, designed to enhance the training and education of the health and social care workforce.