The UK is at an important moment for dementia care. Today, people with dementia occupy one in six hospital beds in the UK, and projections indicate this figure will rise to one in four by 2040, at a cost to the UK taxpayer of £2.8 billion annually.
As our nation ages, the challenge will only grow. With life expectancy increasing, we must support people to not only live longer, but also sustain healthy and fulfilling lives. For every five years a person lives beyond the age of 60, the risk of being diagnosed with dementia doubles. This means that, of those aged over 90, around 1 in 3 people will have dementia. An ageing population means exponential growth in dementia.
At Loveday, I’m proud of our expertise in delivering exceptional clinical care for those with dementia, with every element consciously chosen to make it as easy as possible to transition away from familiar environments.
However, increasingly people with dementia are finding themselves confined to hospitals with medical issues such as dehydration and UTIs, which should be easily treated in residence. Once in hospital, they are uniquely vulnerable to deterioration in wards so often characterised by stretched resources, time and staff, causing distress and exacerbating frailty.
Families and carers pay the price – reporting an increased caregiving burden when their family member with dementia is hospitalised, as they are tasked with overseeing even the basic care requirements such as food.
Loveday doesn’t just offer standard care; we are at the forefront of new research into later life and age-related conditions, seeking to end the “postcode lottery” of dementia care and guarantee a better quality of life for all who have been diagnosed. For the first time, there is a clear opportunity to change the trajectory of dementia, underpinned by transformative scientific opportunity and recent breakthroughs in diagnostics, treatment and prevention.
As the Chair of The Geller Commission, I am grateful to have collaborated with UCL, Dementia UK and The Alzheimer’s Society to launch the UK’s most comprehensive report into the adverse impact of hospitalisation on those with dementia. Together, we highlight the personal stories of those with loved ones with dementia in hospital, the impact of caring in a hospital setting, the challenges of delayed discharges into appropriate environments and approaches to reduce the frequency and duration of dementia-related hospital occupancy.
We must recognise the need for a systemic transformation of the health and care system that is failing to deliver the coordinated and continuous support that people with dementia deserve today.
Signed,
Laurence Geller CBE
Click here to read the report in full
Click here to read media coverage of the report
