Dozens of MPs have made an appeal Andy Burnham to introduce an 18 week target for dementia diagnosis NHS.
The cross-party group of MPs, which also includes former secretaries of state, warned that the Prime Minister risks sending a “completely wrong signal” if he fails to improve the way patients suspected of having the debilitating brain condition are diagnosed.
The NHS is obliged to diagnose patients cancer or cardiovascular disease within strict time limits, but no such benchmark exists for dementia, despite the disease claiming 76,000 lives every year as Britain’s biggest killer.
One in three people with dementia in England do not have a formal diagnosis, and the rest waited an average of three and a half years before receiving one.
Meanwhile, the time dementia patients have to wait between being referred to a memory clinic by their GP and receiving a diagnosis has increased by almost 70 per cent since 2019, from 13 weeks to 22 weeks, according to the latest figures.
Charities are warning that the lack of a clear target means services could be cut, leaving more patients waiting for months or years as their conditions worsen.
This could mean they are too advanced to benefit from breakthrough drugs, which need to be taken in the early stages of the disease.
The letter to Mr Burnham, coordinated by Tory MP Joe Robertson, was supported by more than 60 MPs, including former foreign ministers Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Sir Andrew Mitchell, Dame Karen Bradley and Kit Malthouse, and Commons committee chairmen Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Dame Caroline Dinenage, Bob Blackman and Layla Moran.
Mr Burnham has tragically revealed that his father does not know he became Prime Minister because he suffers from Alzheimer’s disease
The letter, seen by the Daily Mail, states: ‘With the potential arrival of transformative medicines, timely and accurate diagnosis is essential.
‘While progress has been made in reducing waiting times for elective care thanks to the Government’s commitment that 92 per cent of referrals to treatment pathways are completed within 18 weeks, dementia remains without a comparable standard.
‘We are concerned that silence on the 18-week diagnosis target would send completely the wrong message and leave dementia services fragmented across the country.’
Mr Burnham has said his father does not know he became Prime Minister because he suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.
Michelle Dyson, chief executive of the Alzheimer Society, warned that the government’s dementia plan – called the Modern Service Framework for Dementia and Frailty – “won’t be worth the paper it’s written on” after the target, which appeared in an earlier version, was removed from the latest version.
She said the framework was supposed to be a 10-year plan to transform care for the one million people in Britain living with the disease, but she now has “very little confidence” in the document because the ambition appears to be “extremely low”.
The Daily Mail and Alzheimer’s Society have teamed up in the Defeating Dementia campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the disease in a bid to increase early diagnosis, boost research and improve care.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail last month, Ms Dyson accused the NHS of treating dementia patients as ‘second-class citizens’ who are simply ‘left aside’ and usually sent home with little more than a leaflet.
Ms Dyson, previously a senior civil servant at the Department of Health and Social Care, warned the dementia plan ‘won’t be worth the paper it’s written on’ after the target was removed from a recent draft, despite appearing in previous versions.
The Department of Health and Social Care has recognized that dementia has a ‘devastating impact’ on people living with the condition and the families who care for them. A spokesperson added: ‘We want all those affected to have access to high-quality, personalized support.’
