Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect on the health and wellbeing of people with dementia of excluding them from the clinically vulnerable list.

Keeping people safe throughout this period, especially society’s most vulnerable, is the Government’s top priority.  We recognise the particular challenges that people with dementia and their families are facing at this time, whether that’s because of the impact of social distancing measures or because their usual activities or support have been disrupted.

Although dementia is not listed in the definition of clinically vulnerable, people with dementia may fall within the category of ‘vulnerable’ by, for example, meeting the criteria on age or the other defined health conditions.

We commissioned research through the National Institute for Health Research on how to manage or mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on people with dementia and their carers living in the community. Concise advice was produced for people with dementia and their carers respectively. These are available at the following link:

http://www.idealproject.org.uk/covid/