A&E inundated by people with dementia with ‘nowhere else to turn’

Accident and emergency departments in hospitals are seeing a rise in visits from people with dementia, who often require ‘unnecessary’ short hospital stays, according to new figures.

The Dementia Intelligence Network, part of Public Health England report revealed the rate of emergency admissions to hospital for people with dementia in 2017-2018 was 3,609 per 100,000 population aged 65 years and over, an increase from 3,482 in 2016-2017.

Sally Copley, director of policy, campaigns and partnerships at Alzheimer’s Society, has blamed the increased A&E visits on a lack of high-quality dementia care.

She said: “These often avoidable stays in hospital – even if they’re just overnight – can be incredibly harmful to a person with dementia, as well as draining millions from the NHS. They’re an obvious symptom that there just isn’t enough high-quality dementia care available in local communities.”

In addition, the report showed less people living with dementia were benefiting from care plan reviews and that a lower proportion of people with dementia had their care plan review documented in primary care notes in 2018 when compared with 2017.

For more on this story please visit the homecare.co.uk website.