UK govt consults on dementia care

UK Health Minister Ivan Lewis has outlined proposals to improve the quality of dementia care and provide more help for people with the condition, as he launched a consultation on the first ever National Dementia Strategy. Direct costs of dementia care to Britain's National Health Service are estimated to be in the region of L3.3 billion ($6.48 billion), with the amount spent on drugs for this in England alone put at some L60.9 million.

With the full Strategy to be launched in the fall, the governments announcement includes a number of immediate actions, as well as other proposals which will be consulted on over the coming months. These include:

- an immediate review into the prescribing and use of antipsychotic drugs to treat sufferers of dementia. This work will be completed before the publication of the complete National Dementia Strategy.