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   Improving dementia care 'key to future of NHS'
Baroness Greengross writes for ePolitix.com ahead of her question in the House of Lords on ensuring that patients with dementia do not stay in hospital longer than is warranted by the condition that led to their admission. There are opportunities for significant NHS savings, which could run into hundreds of millions of pounds, if people with dementia are supported to leave hospital one week earlier than they currently do. As our population ages an increasing number of people are suffering from Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. There are currently 700,000 people with dementia in the UK and there will soon be more than a million. The type of support that those individuals require may also include treatment for physical health problems. The combination of cognitive impairment and physical illness presents a unique and complex array of challenges within the acute hospital sector, for which health services are currently very poorly prepared. An unacceptable variation in the quality of dementia care on general wards in hospitals across England, Wales and Northern Ireland was identified in a recent Alzheimer's Society report, 'Counting the cost: Caring for people with dementia on hospital wards', which showed that people with dementia over 65 years of age currently use up to a quarter of hospital beds at any one time. Furthermore, these individuals are staying far longer in hospitals than people without cognitive impairment who go in for the treatment for the physical ailment alone. It was shown that the longer a person with dementia is in hospital, then the worse the effect on the symptoms of dementia and the individual's overall physical health. Discharge to a care home becomes more likely and sedative drugs, such as antipsychotics, are more likely to be used. Improving the experience of the large number of people with dementia in hospitals is key to improving the NHS overall and delivering the reform agenda. This will require better cross-working between specialities and substantial improvements in 'dementia training' for staff working in the acute sector. This is vital, as people with dementia are now a core component of daily work in the acute care sector. If people with dementia are supported to leave hospital one week earlier than they currently do the resulting savings could then be more effectively reinvested in workforce development and community services. Source: ePolitix.com Copyright Dod's Parliamentary Communications Ltd
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