Derbyshire dementia hotspot delays

AI-generated image by geralt from Pixabay

Derbyshire is a regional hotspot for dementia, with some residents facing significantly longer delays for support than others.

A Derbyshire County Council meeting this week heard how there are 9,850 people in the county and city diagnosed with dementia with a suspected further 5,000 people undiagnosed – totalling 15,000.

The meeting was also told of a significant disparity between waiting lists for first contacts for dementia support and eventual diagnosis.

In the northern half of the county, the average wait is currently 20 weeks for a first appointment, compared to Derby and south Derbyshire where the expected wait is eight weeks, the meeting heard.

The meeting was told that 40 per cent of all dementias – of which there are more than 100 types – can be prevented, particularly with regular action taken to protect brain health.

Claire Biernacki, the programme lead for dementia at the Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board, said Derbyshire was home to higher levels of dementia than in the other two regions.

She said Derbyshire had been bottom out of the 14 NHS systems in the Midlands for waiting times linked to dementia diagnoses, but was now up to third or fourth.

Derbyshire has surpassed the target of providing 67 per cent of people suffering with dementia with a dementia diagnosis, reaching 69.6 per cent.

Ms Biernacki said in 2020, waiting lists had hit up to 30 weeks on average for a dementia assessment and that during the Covid-19 pandemic, support in many areas was denied to people without a diagnosis, but in Derbyshire these rules were relaxed.

She said there remained an eight-week average (two month) waiting list for dementia sufferers in Derby and the south of Derbyshire.

However, in the northern half of the county the wait was 18-20 weeks on average (five months), for a first appointment, she said, with further waits for a diagnosis.

She said waits nationally ranged drastically between six months and a year for the overall process.

Ms Biernacki, asked why Derbyshire had higher levels of dementia, said this was likely due to the county’s older population, deprivation in the former mining communities and the links to poorer diets, and smoking and alcohol habits which increase the risk of dementia.

Councillor Martin Bromley asked whether the head injuries caused by playing football, which has been linked to increased development of brain injuries, had “dropped off the agenda”.

He said: “Thousands of children are heading balls every week and it seems to have disappeared from the news and media.”

Ms Biernacki said the apparent focus, at least in the press, had shifted to rugby-related brain injuries, saying: “Locally it is not off the agenda but nationally it does seem to have dropped off a bit. Rugby-related injuries have taken over.”