This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
£55 payment causes 24 per cent jump in dementia cases
The figures, as reported on PULSE, show that the number of patients with a record of dementia was 336,445 in September, and was counted as 415,964 at the end of March this year.
NHS England, now predict that the number of people living in England with dementia is now 659,000 - meaning that 63 per cent of people with dementia have successfully been diagnosed. This falls just short of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Challenge on Dementia, which invested £90 million last year to diagnose two thirds of dementia sufferers by March 2015.
The £55 incentive has led to a dramatic increase in diagnoses, with a colossal increase of 23,000 patients - a 6 per cent hike - in March alone, the final month of the incentive scheme. Although the scheme has been dropped, a case-finding DES is to be further expanded this year, including more patients targeted for screening.
Dr Martin Brunet, a GP trainer in Guildford, and campaigner against dementia DES, said: "The higher you aim the more danger there is of misdiagnosing, or just spending a lot of effort, time and resource on people who don’t have dementia when you should be spending it on people who clearly do."
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