Share of NHS funding should aid dementia patients

An Alzheimer’s Society report calling for a new £2.4 billion Dementia Fund has received backing from 68 cross party MPs after an open letter was delivered to Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

With people with dementia facing 15 per cent higher social care costs than others, the new report calls for urgent investment in high-quality, person-centred care through a dedicated Dementia Fund to end the dementia penalty people face when paying for care. Typically, people with dementia spend £100,000 on their care over a lifetime.

The MPs letter, orchestrated by Rachael Maskell, chair of the APPG for Ageing and Older people, received 68 signatures, including representatives from the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green and Change UK parties. The letter addresses the social care system struggles and the need for urgent investment into services and support for people with dementia in absence of the long-awaited social care Green Paper.   

The charity argues that the Dementia Fund would benefit the NHS in the long term, meaning fewer people living with dementia are forced to go to A&E at crisis point, and would ensure better support is in place to enable people living with dementia to leave hospital as soon as they are well enough. The charity argues that the Dementia Fund would benefit the NHS in the long term, meaning fewer people living with dementia are forced to go to A&E at crisis point, and would ensure better support is in place to enable people living with dementia to leave hospital as soon as they are well enough.

Jeremy Hughes, chief executive at Alzheimer’s Society, said: “Social care is in a desperate state, in urgent need of a complete overhaul. Decades of underfunding have left people with dementia struggling with a system that is unfair and unsustainable. The injustice of people battling to get care, on top of battling the devastating effects of dementia can’t go on.

“The overwhelming cross party support shown through the open letter to the Health Secretary illustrates how indisputable this crisis is. A Dementia Fund will provide help now to remedy the situation for people with dementia, while we wait for the Green Paper and a long-term sustainable funding solution for social care.”