Black N, Dixon J, Tan S, Knapp M
Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 2015, 108, 12: 478—481
Available online 2 Oct 2015
The announcement in late 2014 of a £55 payment to general practitioners in England for each patient they diagnose as having dementia was further evidence of the emphasis the government has been putting on this previously neglected condition. Increasing the diagnosis rate was only one aspect of a wide range of initiatives that have been pursued since 2009 when the National Dementia Strategy1 was published and given even greater prominence under the Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia inaugurated in 2012.2 In 2014, to inform the government’s work in drawing up its vision for further improvements from April 2015, a rapid review was conducted to consider what had been achieved and what future action should be considered.3
While people with dementia and their relatives clearly require integrated and coordinated health and social care, here we consider only healthcare, focusing on four key aspects: diagnosis; post-diagnostic healthcare; hospital care; and training of healthcare staff.
