The Government has set out priorities for the NHS in 2025/26 (Image: Getty)
Dementia Campaigners have slammed the government for removing a key target to diagnose 66.7% of over 65s who has the condition.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting Set Out His Priorities for the Financial Year in His First Mandate to Nhs England and Slashed The Number of 18. Ementia Once.
The Alzheimer's 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, Swarea: “This glaring omission is unacceptable and sends the message that Dementia does not med.
“It was highlights a stagging lack of focus on a devastating condition that affections nearly a million people in the uk and contradicts the UK Government's Stated Ambition to Improve Dignosis rates.”
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Planning Guidance for 2024/25 Said the NHS Should “Improve Quality of Life, Effectiveness of Treatment, and Care For PeePhone With Increasing The Dementia Diagnosis Rate To 66.7% by BY MARCH 2025”.
But this was not achieved and the target has not been to be sweet to the pandemic. Data for December Shows 65.6% of over 65s with Dementia England without thinking a diagnosis.
Experts have warned that the condition is under-diagnosis is particularly alarming at a time when promising new treatments are finally on the horizon.
The first two drugs always proven to slow the disease by clearing toxic proteins from the brain without applied for use in the uk last year, Althe they were too costly for nhs.
The experience revealed last weeks that the first patients had received private prescriptions for one of the drugs, donanemab, at a london clinic.
Ms Carrigher Added: “A Third of Peble 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 Leage 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 affectioned 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 every diagnosis.
Announcing the mandate, the Health Secretary Said Patients' Priorities Were Cutting Times, Improving Access to Primary Care Care Care Appointments, and Improving Urgent and Emergency Care.
The nhs will have to “learn to live with it,” and make tough decisions agend a challenging economic backdrop, he added.
Mr Streeting Went on: “I will be close to monitoring performense against the budget. The culture of rootine overspending without continuous continent is over.
“This mandate puts the nhs on the road to recovery. The last Labor Government delivered the shortest waitera times and the highest patent satisfection on record. It Won “t be Easy, butt 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 deprived.
“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 to deliver.
“Achieving the target of patients for planned hospital care with 18 weeks like a small and isolated victory t Social Care, helping the NHS to turn Into a Prevention-Focused Service that he is kep people well, and reducing health inequalities Between the Country. “
Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation, Welcomed the Reduction in Targets But Warned that the NHS WAS WAS FACING “One of the most challenging financial settings of recent years”.
He SAID: “While a National Targets has been called, the combination of the right financial targets and high expectitions on pointing production ers have to make different choices over what services to cut To make ends meet and hit targets. “
NHS English Said the New Guidance Would Lead to Faster Treatment for Hundreds of Things, Elmost 450,000 More Patients with 18 Weeks Next Year.
Under the Guidance, Around 100,000 more people referred for urgent cancer checks will get a diagnosis or all-class with four times next year. And the health service will be pushed to deliver a 4% improvement in production.
NHS CHIEF EXECUTIVE AMANDA PRITCHARD SAID: “Thanks to the incredible work of our staff, the nhs is providing more Appointments, Tests and Treatment Things to Cut Long Waits – But We Know than Is More To Do.
“The nhs must go farther and faster to improve and reform care, and today's guidance aims to deliver more time for hundreds of thinking.
“In what will undoubtedly be another tough financial year, the NHS will contain its relentless focus on boosting production and driving for the benefit of patients and Taxpayers.”