Charities urge the government to announce 10-year dementia plan

Initially pledged to be published by the end of 2022, the UK government failed to produce their 10-year dementia plan dismissing patients and professionals needs.

In May 2022, former Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, promised an efficient 10-year dementia plan would be delivered by the end of the year at an Alzheimer’s Society conference. 

The Department of Health and Social Care recalled the strategy would focus on harnessing new medicines and emerging science and technology. The government announced £375m would be allocated towards researching the disease.

However, as Cabinet has been reshuffled and Steve Barclay has now taken the role of Health Secretary, the government have ambiguously claimed the 10-year plan will come ‘in due course’.

Fiona Carragher, Director of Research and Influencing at Alzheimer’s Society, told the MailOnline: ‘The 10-year plan for dementia was primed to deliver more preventative, professional and joined-up health and care, including tackling dementia diagnosis backlogs and record social care staff vacancies.

‘Crucial to this plan was getting the health and social care ‘system ready’, so breakthrough treatments can be made available in the UK as soon as possible.’

In November 2022, scientists announced they had successfully created the first drug, known as lecanemab, which was proven to slow down the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, however, Ms Carragher has claimed this ‘momentous and historic’ breakthrough doesn’t mean much to people suffering with the disease as diagnosis targets aren’t being met.

According to research by the World Health Organisation in September 2022, there are more than 55 million people living with dementia worldwide, and there are almost 10 million cases every year.

However, in 2021 a report by Alzheimer’s Disease International unveiled more than 41 million people living with dementia worldwide have not yet been diagnosed.

Dr Susan Mitchell, Head of Policy at Alzheimer’s Research, told the MailOnline: ‘We are disappointed that we are yet to see the 10-year plan that was announced under Boris Johnson’s leadership, and a clear roadmap from government is vital for progress in research and the delivery of more effective diagnosis, risk reduction and treatments for dementia.

‘We need action now to support earlier and more accurate diagnosis in the NHS by preparing for new diagnostic techniques that have the potential to detect the diseases like Alzheimer’s years earlier than we can today.’

Photo by Rui Chamberlain