The Government has set out priorities for the NHS in 2025/26 (Image: Getty)
campaigners have slammed the Government for removing a key target to diagnose 66.7% of over 65s who have the condition.
Health Secretary set out his priorities for the coming financial year in his first mandate to England and slashed the number of national targets from 32 to 18. But his statement and the published guidance failed to mention dementia once.
The Society said the decision sent a message that the condition – which affects more than 900,000 people in the UK – is not a priority.
The charity’s chief policy and research officer, Fiona Carragher, said: “This glaring omission is unacceptable and sends the message that dementia doesn’t matter.
“It highlights a staggering lack of focus on a devastating condition that affects nearly a million people in the UK and contradicts the UK Government’s stated ambition to improve diagnosis rates.”
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Planning guidance for 2024/25 said the NHS should “improve quality of life, effectiveness of treatment, and care for people with dementia by increasing the dementia diagnosis rate to 66.7% by March 2025”.
But this was not achieved and the target has not been met since before the pandemic. Data for December shows 65.6% of over 65s with dementia England were thought to have a diagnosis.
Experts have warned that the condition’s under-diagnosis is particularly alarming at a time when promising new treatments are finally on the horizon.
The first two drugs ever proven to slow the disease by clearing toxic proteins from the brain were approved for use in the UK last year, although they were deemed too costly for NHS use.
The that the first patients had received private prescriptions for one of the drugs, donanemab, at a London clinic.
Ms Carragher added: “A third of people living with dementia in the UK do not have a diagnosis, leaving them without access to care, support and treatment and putting them at greater risk of crisis.
“We also know that early diagnosis can help reduce some of the huge costs and pressure dementia places on the NHS.
“The inclusion of the 66.7% national dementia diagnosis target in the 2024/25 guidance at least showed NHS England was committed to improving diagnosis and providing vital local accountability.
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“The same now cannot be said for the year to come. This is a backwards step which will alarm all those affected by dementia.”
The Government is due to publish a 10-Year Plan for Health this spring. The Alzheimer’s Society urged Mr Streeting to “set ambitious and achievable new diagnosis rate targets” to ensure everyone gets a timely diagnosis.
Announcing the mandate, the Health Secretary said patients’ priorities were cutting waiting times, improving access to primary care including GP appointments, and improving urgent and emergency care.
The NHS will have to “learn to live within its means” and make tough decisions against a challenging economic backdrop, he added.
Mr Streeting went on: “I will be closely monitoring performance against the budget. The culture of routine overspending without consequences is over.
“This mandate puts the NHS on the road to recovery. The last Labour government delivered the shortest waiting times and the highest patient satisfaction on record. It won’t be easy, but together we’ll do it again.”
Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King’s Fund, said the guidance reflected the Government’s strong focus on bringing down waits for hospital care and improving A&E performance.
She added: “If achieved, it will bring improvements for many patients, but emphasis in these areas will inevitably mean other services get deprioritised.
“Tackling the backlog of people needing planned care is important but should not be taken as the sole measure of what a health and care system is meant to deliver.
“Achieving the target of patients being seen for planned hospital care within 18 weeks will seem like a small and isolated victory in four years’ time if it meant the government took its eye off the ball in reforming adult social care, helping the NHS to turn into a prevention-focused service that helps keep people well, and reducing health inequalities between different parts of the country.”
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, welcomed the reduction in targets but warned that the NHS was facing “one of the most challenging financial settlements of recent years”.
He said: “While a reduction in national targets has been long called for, the combination of the tight financial envelope, 4% efficiency targets and high expectations on boosting productivity are likely to leave our members having to make difficult choices over what services to cut to make ends meet and hit targets.”
NHS England said the new guidance would lead to faster treatment for hundreds of thousands, including an aim to see treat almost 450,000 more patients within 18 weeks next year.
Under the guidance, around 100,000 more people referred for urgent cancer checks will get a diagnosis or the all-clear within four weeks next year. And the health service will be pushed to deliver a 4% improvement in productivity.
NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said: “Thanks to the incredible work of our staff, the NHS is providing more appointments, tests and treatment than ever before, helping to cut long waits – but we know there is much more to do.
“The NHS must go further and faster to improve and reform care, and today’s guidance aims to deliver more timely treatment for hundreds of thousands of patients.
“In what will undoubtedly be another tough financial year, the NHS will continue its relentless focus on boosting productivity and driving efficiencies for the benefit of patients and taxpayers.”