Dementia sufferers let down by system, minister admits

Ivan Lewis, the Care Services Minister, acknowledged the problem days before the verdict of a judicial review is due into the NHS ban on drugs in the early stages of Alzheimer's in England.

But he insisted drug treatment was not the only solution to dementia care.

Announcing a national strategy to deal with the disease, Mr Lewis said: "We know that too many families feel the NHS and social care systems are not meeting their needs.

"The current system is failing too many dementia sufferers and their carers."

He denied, however, that the Government was inhabiting a 'parallel universe', where a strategy to tackle the disease would have to ignore the potential benefits of drugs for those given an early diagnosis. It would be 'inappropriate' to comment on the review, he added.

The legal challenge by the Alzheimer's Society has been funded by Daily Mail readers, who raised £230,000.

It follows thousands of protests made to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence over prescribing restrictions that many psychiatrists claim will plunge dementia care into the Dark Ages.

NICE acknowledges that the three drugs - Aricept, Exelon and Reminyl - work.

But it says that, at £2.50 per day per patient, they are not costeffective until symptoms deteriorate to the 'moderate' stage.

Carers of those with Alzheimer's gain 90 minutes a day when their loved ones respond to drugs.

As part of the Government's strategy, experts will draw up plans aimed at improving understanding of dementia and ensuring early diagnosis and treatment Mr Lewis added:

"We need to minimise the shame and fear associated with dementia so that people and their relatives feel able to seek support at the earliest possible stage, in the knowledge they will get expert help.

"By no means is the main or only issue about drugs and medication. To present it in this way misses the point."

The Alzheimer's Society warned yesterday that half of those with dementia will never have their condition properly diagnosed.

Chief executive Neil Hunt, who will lead a contributory strategy group, said there was a huge task ahead before the 'transformation plan' is produced next summer.

"Currently, 600,000 people have dementia in England yet more than half of these will never receive a formal diagnosis and families are often left to cope alone until they reach crisis point," he said.

"In less than twenty years over a million will have dementia."

Help the Aged said the missing link in the strategy was a lack of investment in research.

In the U.S, the equivalent of 66p per citizen is invested in research, but here, just 15p each is allocated, it added.

The strategy was welcomed by Barbara Pointon, whose husband Malcolm, a pianist and composer, will have some of his final days living with dementia featured in an ITV documentary tomorrow.

A specialist had believed her husband might have been allowed to stay at home, rather than going into care, had he been allowed the banned drug Ebixa, she explained. The drug is available in many other countries.

She said: "It just makes sense to give people a chance to try these drugs and see if they work and make a difference."