The standard of care for dementia patients in the UK has been attacked by an Alzheimer’s Society report.
According to the study, the quality of service offered to the group across the NHS varies widely.
Four in five of the nurses questioned by the Alzheimer’s Society said that they had not been given "any or enough" dementia training.
Around nine in ten also said that they find working with the patients "very challenging".
Neil Hunt, the Alzheimer’s Society chief executive, said: "It is shocking that people with dementia are occupying up to a quarter of hospital beds yet there are scandalous variations in quality of dementia care in hospitals.
"A million more people will develop dementia in the next ten years. The NHS needs to start taking dementia seriously."
Care costs of an elderly relative with dementia can also cause problems for UK families.
One of the ways in which this expense can be funded is through unlocking value from an elderly person’s property via an equity release plan.
News of the Alzheimer’s Society report follows the release of government plans to provide targets for physicians to reduce the amount of anti-psychotic drugs prescribed to dementia sufferers.
Around two in three of the patients are thought to have been given the drugs.
Posted by Claire Ford
