Dementia sufferers face lottery of diagnosis

DEMENTIA sufferers are facing a postcode lottery of diagnosis rates, figures suggest.

In some areas of the UK, as few as one in three people suffering from the condition will receive a formal diagnosis, data from the Alzheimer’s Society suggests.

In other areas, three-quarters of dementia sufferers will be told by a doctor about their condition.

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Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the variation was “unacceptable”.

Across the UK, 46 per cent of sufferers were diagnosed in 2012, the Alzheimer’s Society said.

The charity said that while the figure is an improvement on the previous year, there are still thought to be 428,500 people in the UK who have the condition but have not been diagnosed.

This means they are going without the support, benefits and the medical treatment that can help them live with the condition, charity chief executive Jeremy Hughes said.

Diagnosis rates were best in Scotland where 64.4 per cent of sufferers were told about their condition. In Wales, just 38.5 per cent of sufferers formally received a diagnosis in 2012.

And 44.2 per cent of people with the condition in England were diagnosed compared with 63 per cent in Northern Ireland.

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust provided the best diagnosis rates in 2012, with 75.5 per cent of patients being diagnosed.

The charity has produced an interactive map highlighting the variation in dementia diagnosis across the UK.

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It said the new data also suggests that the average waiting time for an appointment at a specialist memory clinic is 32.5 working days – more than the recommended four to six weeks.

Mr Hunt added: “The small improvement in dementia diagnosis is good news, but the extreme variation across the country is unacceptable.”