Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure (a) dementia is diagnosed in a timely way, (b) services involved in dementia health care communicate with each other effectively and (c) dementia healthcare services are accessible to patients at convenient times and locations, in the Congleton constituency.

Cheshire East Council and Cheshire & Merseyside Integrated Care Board have been working in close partnership with local providers and Dementia Communities to develop a new Dementia Plan which prioritises the Dementia Well Pathway. The Plan will be published in May 2023.

NHS England funding provided in 2021 was used to recruit an Admiral Nurse in each of the two Cheshire East memory services. The aim is to free up existing clinicians to focus on assessment and diagnosis while the Admiral Nurses provide post-diagnostic support to those recently diagnosed or those referred because they are experiencing complexity. An evaluation of this approach will be conducted in October 2023. Early indications suggest high levels of patient and carer satisfaction.