Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) dementia and (b) Alzheimer’s are diagnosed (i) correctly and (ii) as quickly as possible.

The Government’s mandate to NHS England requires NHS England to deliver the actions set out in the Challenge on Dementia 2020 Implementation Plan. The Implementation Plan envisages that:

“In every part of the country people with dementia having equal access to diagnosis as for other conditions, with an expectation that the national average for an initial assessment should be 6 weeks following a referral from a GP (where clinically appropriate), and that no one should be waiting several months for an initial assessment of dementia.”

We have made great strides in delivering the Challenge: this includes being above NHS England’s target for two thirds of people living with dementia to receive a formal diagnosis. Our focus now is on reducing the variation of local diagnosis rates and NHS England have programmes in place to further improve the quality and timeliness of diagnosis.