The Department of Health has developed an ambitious and comprehensive strategy for dementia. However, there has not yet been a robust approach to implementation, according to a recent National Audit Office (NAO) report.
Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said: “The DH stated in October 2007 that dementia was a national priority and brought forward a widely supported strategy in February 2009 to transform the lives of people with dementia. The action, however, has not so far matched the rhetoric in terms of urgency. At the moment this strategy lacks the mechanisms needed to bring about large scale improvements.” The NAO report commented that the dementia strategy is likely to cost much more than the estimated £1.9 billion over ten years and was highly critical of plans to fund implementation through “efficiency savings” arising from the acute hospital and long-term care sectors. The NAO added that the strategy will be difficult to achieve “without joined-up, well-informed commissioning” and “the actual releasing or re-directing of resources from secondary to primary care, or from NHS to social care”. It also pointed out that there is still no basic training for healthcare professionals on how to understand and work with people with dementia, while there is an absence of strong leadership, which is crucial to improve services. Insufficient “joined-up working” between health and social care services was also identified as a problem. The chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, Edward Leigh MP, warned: “Without dedicated funding, good performance information, robust performance management and strong local leadership, services for people with dementia will not improve at the rate expected and the value for money of the £8.2 bn a year spent by the NHS and social care services on the condition will remain poor.”
