Dementia Diagnosis

Lord Allan of Hallam Excerpts

Monday 4th September 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)]

The noble Lord raises a very important point. He is right that there is substantial variation across integrated care boards in dementia diagnosis rates. NHS England has commissioned a dementia intelligence network to develop a resource to investigate that very issue. It is important that we learn from the very best so that we can put in place an industry-standard best practice to make sure that we get the very best across the country.

[Lord Allan of Hallam (LD)]

My Lords, is the Minister concerned that there may be misdiagnosis of Alzheimer’s in people who do not speak English as their first language because of the use of verbal cognitive function tests? What are the Government doing to ensure that appropriate tests are available for people from all the different linguistic groups that have a significant presence in the United Kingdom?