Dementia patients are being “cast aside” by the NHS and are too often sent home with only a leaflet after diagnosis, the head of the Alzheimer’s Society has warned.
Michelle Dyson said the memory condition was not treated with the same seriousness as heart disease or cancer, leaving patients feeling like “second class citizens”.
She also said the health service was woefully underprepared for the challenge of delivering potentially life-saving Alzheimer’s drugs.
“Imagine being told you have a disease that will rob you of your memory, your independence and your ability to recognise the people you love – and then being sent home with a leaflet,” she told the Daily Mail.
“That would be unthinkable for cancer. Yet for dementia, it happens all the time.
“A leaflet is not care or treatment. It doesn’t help a frightened husband, wife or daughter when the person they love starts to disappear in front of them.”
The charity estimates that about a million people in the UK have dementia. This number is likely to rise to 1.4 million by 2040, and the charity claims patients are being missed “at every stage”.
A Lancet study published in 2024 found up to 45 per cent of dementia cases are preventable, identifying 14 risk factors including smoking, alcohol, obesity, blood pressure and hearing loss.