Prime Minister Andy Burnham is facing calls to set a national target for waiting times for dementia care in England.
The Alzheimer’s Society’s proposal to set a referral target of 18 weeks has been backed by Professor Sir Mike Richards, the former national director of Cancer England, and Baroness Louise Casey, who is leading a major review of adult social care.
A report from the Alzheimer’s Society and the King’s Trust says a “cancer-style revolution” is needed to improve dementia care, which they say is “stuck in the 20th century”.
In a speech to the Alzheimer’s Society conference on Thursday, Social Care Minister Alison McGovern expressed support for the report., external.
She said: “The report published today by the Alzheimer’s Society about our journey with cancer, Alzheimer’s and dementia, I think is what’s needed.”
The minister said dementia had been “ignored for too long”.
She added: “And nowhere is this divide between health and social care felt more acutely than among people living with dementia in their families, who too often have to navigate a broken system during the most difficult time of their lives.”
The government has committed to appointing a senior official to oversee dementia care and publishing a new plan – a modern service framework – to speed up support for people with the condition by the end of the year.
McGovern said the government would “appoint a dementia czar backed by real-world experience”.
There is currently no waiting time target for dementia care in England.
In contrast, the NHS sets waiting time targets for cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Professor Richards was national cancer director when these cancer targets were introduced in 2000 and said he believed the 18-week referral target for patients with dementia was achievable.
He said setting such a goal would require “political initiative” and additional funding.
“All of this will cost more money, but remember the toll this disease is currently taking on both people with dementia and their families,” the professor said.
The same proposal was made by Baroness Casey.
In a letter to former health secretary Wes Streeting in March, she said the government should consider “how dementia can be placed on an equal footing with other conditions, for example by setting national standards for diagnosing dementia, including an 18-week referral target.”
Speaking to the BBC, Baroness Casey said she agreed with the proposal to mimic cancer treatments.
She said: “I think the NHS and generally all of us have stuck our heads in the sand on this and it’s time to start saying, yes, we need to have a similar mission and we need to do as much as we can about dementia, and now.”
Baroness Casey is expected to publish her recommendations for welfare reform next summer.
There are around a million people living with dementia in the UK and this figure is expected to reach 1.4 million by 2040.
Burnham canceled his commitments earlier this week following the death of his father Roy, who had Alzheimer’s disease.
After returning from compassionate leave, he said his father wished he could “go back there” to talk about “the changes he was always pushing me to make.”
In July, Burnham spoke about his father’s condition and said it had influenced his drive to reform adult social care in England.
Burnham said he would wait for Baroness Casey’s recommendations before deciding what changes to make to social care and how it would be funded.
