NHS Chief Blames Lack of Face-to-Face GP Appointments for 24% Fall in Dementia Detection Rates

Progress on tackling dementia has stalled, Sajid Javid admitted on Tuesday, as the NHS dementia chief blamed the lack of in-person GP check-ups during the pandemic for a 24% drop in dementia detection rates. The Telegraph has the story.

Speaking at the Alzheimer’s Society annual conference, in London, Mr Javid said 1.6 million people in the UK were expected to have dementia by 2040, up from around 900,000 now.

Advances had been made in recent years, the Health Secretary said, “but the pandemic has stemmed the tide of progress”.

“Despite the best efforts of the NHS it became harder for some people to get a timely diagnosis because the pandemic made it more difficult to access memory assessment services,” he added.

The NHS dementia chief [Professor Alistair Burns] also told the conference that remote GP appointments meant opportunities to diagnose dementia had been “lost”…

Prof Burns said there were “pros and cons” to tele-consultations. “Crucially for me [there is the] issue of digital exclusion, people may not have access to some of the new technology and are at a disadvantage.”

Many patients have said they struggled to see their family doctor in person during the pandemic. The most recent official figures from NHS Digital show 62% of GP appointments were held in-person in March, compared with around 80% pre-pandemic.

Many aspects of primary care “slipped a bit” during the pandemic, Prof Burns added.

Citing new figures, he said the number of people at risk of dementia who were referred for assessment dropped by almost a quarter in the six months to this year, from 147,000 pre-pandemic to 112,000.

“It’s been a tough time for everyone during Covid, but I know particularly people with dementia, their families and carers have lost out disproportionately,” he said.

Worth reading in full.

Subscribe
Notify of

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

35 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
djmo
3 years ago

Advances had been made in recent years, the Health Secretary said, “but the pandemic has stemmed the tide of progress”.

No Sajid, you lot have stemmed the tide of progress with your idiotic lockdowns.

tom171uk
3 years ago
Reply to  djmo

Absolutely. We must never let them get away with blaming “the pandemic” for failures caused by their hysterical and ill-considered response to the pandemic.

David Beaton
David Beaton
3 years ago
Reply to  tom171uk

How do we stop them “getting away with it” when we are Governed by un-repealed “Covid Emergency Powers”and there is no Parliamentary Opposition?

Johnson will never willingly hand back the power he has grabbed and our democracy and all our Institutions are now fatally compromised!

Dame Lynet
Dame Lynet
3 years ago
Reply to  djmo

He’s a mealy mouthed t**t and still can’t admit the truth.

TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
3 years ago

Many in politics seem to have undiagnosed dementia, they seem to forget what they promised or follow laws they approved literally moments before.

Milo
Milo
3 years ago

Don’t give them the benefit of the ‘dementia’ cop out – they didn’t ‘forget’ to follow laws they approved – the laws were never needed in the first place – that is what partygate showed us.

Nessimmersion
3 years ago

Many aspects of primary care “slipped a bit” during the pandemic, Prof Burns added.

Jeez, talk about chutzpas, more than a bit methinks.
Went90% missing for most requirements & indulged in an orgy of sociopathic Midazolam parties for the defenceless is closer to the mark.
The NHS being true to its values of course.

John Dee
3 years ago
Reply to  Nessimmersion

That ‘slipped a bit’ must be what those grammatical types refer to as litotes.
If queues of 6.4 million awaiting NHS attention is ‘a bit’, one shudders to think what serious slippage would look like.
And the docs don’t exactly seem to be burning rubber to get things back to what might laughingly be termed ‘normal’.

PhantomOfLiberty
PhantomOfLiberty
3 years ago

Well, it’s going to be great when disease control in this country is handed over to the WHO. At least, they can ensure that no system will ever work again – the final short-circuit of government responsibility for anything.

MDH
MDH
3 years ago

There’s a danger of getting bogged down in detail and losing sight of the fundamental issue – after two years of poking around for excess deaths caused by Covid, the numbers simply aren’t there. There never was a “pandemic” in the (previously) accepted sense of the word. Until that is admitted to, the rest is noise.

MrTea
MrTea
3 years ago
Reply to  MDH

Apprently Sweden has recorded a lower all cause mortality rate over the two years of the claimed pandemic than for the five year average prior to the claimed pandemic.

How is this possible in a country that did as little as possible during the claimed pandemic unless there simply was no new respiratory illness?

David Beaton
David Beaton
3 years ago
Reply to  MrTea

We know the answer don’t we?

“Scamedmic”? Watch our for the Gates new deadly ‘Bird Flu” and the following ‘new vax’ – coming to a permanent ‘Vax Centre’ near you just as soon as Johnson can sign up the to Gates /WHO take over and Mandate our ‘pandemic ‘strategy !

CynicalRealist
3 years ago
Reply to  MrTea

I think there’s every reason to believe that there was a new respiratory illness caused by a virus (which was probably manufactured in a lab).

However, it’s also clear that this illness was simply not significant enough to justfy any measures at all – and in any case, no illness would justify the pointless and destructive rituals which most countries imposed. RItuals which bore no relationship to pandemic plans devised over many years of practical experience.

MrTea
MrTea
3 years ago

Imagine You Are An Aluminum Atom: Discussions With Mr. Aluminum is a book written by the aluminium expert Dr Christopher Exley.
I’m just reading the chapter about Dr Exley’s work looking into the aluminium adjuvants that are contained in a great many vaccines and how his recent autopsy work on dementia and autism sufferers found large deposits of inflammation causing aluminium in the brains of the victims, healthy brains do not have this contamination.

The evidence that vaccines cause massive harm, particularly because of the aluminium adjuvants, is growing significantly, I suppose this is one of the reasons the governments around the world are imposing censorship for ‘misinformation’.

If it becomes widely known that autism and dementia (and other inflamatory neurological diseases) are caused in large part by the vaccines that pharma and government push it will not end well for them, so they will bury the truth.

Safe and effective – my arse.

Milo
Milo
3 years ago
Reply to  MrTea

That is what I am seeing with an elderly parent – triple jabbed and the damaged began after the first jab.

Yes – the aluminium adjuvant would be an issue, but the micro-clotting I could see in the capillaries beneath the skin in her arms would also have been happening in the brain.

And this is likely happening to a lot of the elderly people in our country who, terrified by the government and the MSM of the “deadly virus” queued in their droves for injection after injection. They couldn’t wait to get their jab appointments.

Monro
3 years ago

Dementia can derive from medication, for example steroids, particularly high doses.

Massive doses of steroids are used to treat polymyalgia in the elderly.

Polymyalgia is a well known influenza vaccine side effect.

No wonder dementia is on the increase.

Statins may not be helping, either.

MrTea
MrTea
3 years ago
Reply to  Monro

Every cell in the human body needs cholesterol and has the ability to generate chlesterol if it is lacking, the human brain is basically packed with cholesterol.

I know let us stuff drugs into the elderly so their cholesterol is artificially suppressed, what could possibly go wrong?

David Beaton
David Beaton
3 years ago

If the Chief believes what he says and Javid apparently agrees , then why doesn’t he simple order the GPs to see patients face-to-face again when they areclearly at no significant risk? I any case don’t the Heayh Service still claim (however wrongly) that masks protect their personnel from any perceived dangers from patients? Isn’t it s time the shy and fearful ‘Doctors’ were bought to account – or perhaps the NHS should simply cancel the contracts ogf those who refuse their principal duty of care ( refusing to see patients?) ) and re-write the contracts of a new batch to make it a requirement of the job? After all, seeing a patient face-to-face does appear to be the principal purpose and obligation of a Doctor . Or is that now not part of Schwab’s ‘New Normal’ plan for us all? Or now simply part of the ‘plan’ to privatise medical services under Gates/WHO control and reduce the scope of the NHS dramatically? Is that in fact the real story? After all, there is always self-diagnosis from the internet and the option of an extension of the drugs available without prescription from the Pharmacy! No sophisticated or professional diagnosis was… Read more »

Milo
Milo
3 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

I think you have nailed it David – your description of the new “health” service planned for the UK is probably what is being discussed in cabinet papers, or not far from it

CynicalRealist
3 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

It’s bizarre that people who decide to go into a profession which inevitably involves regular contact with diseases should, en masse, develop a paranoid fear of an unexceptional disease which poses no real risk to nearly all of them.

If someone was afraid of dogs, they wouldn’t get a job in a kennels, would they?

Hypatia
Hypatia
3 years ago

Despite the best efforts of the NHS it became harder for some people to get a timely diagnosis because the pandemic made it more difficult to access memory assessment services,” 

No, the “pandemic” had little to do with it. It was the NHS’s decision to become a “covid only” service for two years that was a major factor. That and GPs running away and refusing to see patients face to face, which many of them are still doing.

Many aspects of primary care “slipped a bit” during the pandemic, Prof Burns added.

Slipped a bit? Is that what it was? How about “ceased altogether”, which is far more accurate!

John001
John001
3 years ago
Reply to  Hypatia

It’s as if GPs were affected as badly by the mass hypnosis (aka military-grade psy-ops) as the rest of the population.

CynicalRealist
3 years ago
Reply to  Hypatia

And it wasn’t the ‘best efforts of the NHS’ either – they made it as difficult as possible to see a GP. It didn’t just happen – it was intentional policy.

Catee
3 years ago

‘Advances had been made in recent years, the Health Secretary said, “but the pandemic has stemmed the tide of progress”.’

Absolute crap, the ‘pandemic’ hasnt stemmed the tide of anything, the ridiculous response to a perceived
threat and the yellow line running down the spines of the majority of our medical profession are to blame.

Hopeless - "TN,BN"
3 years ago
Reply to  Catee

I expect that may have changed to a blue and yellow line, to reflect (delete as appropriate) this week’s/month’s/quarter’s/year’s Zeitgeist.

Other colours may become available; Red is a likely choice.

caravaggio57
3 years ago

Sorry to sound a bit nihilistic but can someone explain to me the primary question here?
What benefit does early diagnosis of dementia by GPs provide? When there is no effective treatment, no adequate access to ‘Care’ which has been made even worse by the cretinous vaccine mandates on Care workers imposed by Sajid Javid, poor and deteriorating access to Social Services and referral to Secondary Care resulted, even before Covid, in a single assessment appointment and subsequent production of an information folder for the ‘client’ to take home and no follow up. Perhaps the question that should be asked of Professor Burns is. How many patients’ dementia have you cured? I’ll give you a clue. None! Management of Dementia is 95% Social and only 5% Medical.

GPs would be much better using their time diagnosing early Cancer where there is treatment and often CURE!!!

Declared interest. Father died from Alzheimers 10 years ago. M-i-L with Parkinsonian dementia 3 years ago and Mother currently has cognitive impairment but no diagnosis.

MrTea
MrTea
3 years ago
Reply to  caravaggio57

If those you mention were taking their vaccines as encouraged by their GP then they would have been getting consistent doses of aluminium a known neurotoxin.
Waters containing high concentrations of silica, like Volvic, can flush aluminium out.

See-
Imagine You Are An Aluminum Atomby Dr Christopher Exley

MrTea
MrTea
3 years ago

The irony being that GPs probably cause dementia in their patients as a direct result of the crap they stuff into them.
The flu vaccines don’t prevent flu at all but they do contain aluminium adjuvant that is known to cause brain inflammation , autopsies on dementia victims has found aluminium lodged in the brain causing inflammation.
In addition they pump the silver tops with statins to lower cholesterol when the brain needs lots of cholesterol to function properly.

John Dee
3 years ago

This report can’t possibly be correct. Aren’t all the top medical wallahs getting knighthoods?

CynicalRealist
3 years ago

Progress on tackling dementia has stalled, Sajid Javid admitted on Tuesday, as the NHS dementia chief blamed the lack of in-person GP check-ups during the pandemic for a 24% drop in dementia detection rates.

Well, no shit! Who would ever have thought that making primary healthcare difficult or impossible to access would lead to serious conditions not being diagnosed?

No doubt the same applies across the board with most serious conditions, other than those like heart attacks where the patient is likely to end up in A&E, making it harder for the NHS to ignore them.

brachiopod
3 years ago

Progress on tackling dementia has stalled”

Certainly has judging by the cognitive malfunctioning of the current crop of Cabinet Ministers.

Woodburner
Woodburner
3 years ago

Imagine the licenced sadism at work in this situation: You fear that you are going off your head, and you can’t get an appointment with a doctor, to have a test, and the apparent reduction in the incidence of referalls is hailed as some sort of triumph over dementia…

marebobowl
marebobowl
3 years ago

Nhs gone. Finished. It does not work anymore.

Robert Liddell
Robert Liddell
3 years ago

Given that there is nothing one can do to treat dementia, I have never understood the drive for early diagnosis. I’d really rather not know a couple of years earlier that I was going to lose my mind completely.
one of the arguments put forward is that it gives time to get powers of attorney and wills in place, but we should all be encouraged to do that anyway.
In time, effective early treatment will become available, which will change the argument.
Also, memory clinics and scans are not really necessary to diagnose dementia.

bowlsman
bowlsman
3 years ago

These stupid people do not wish to , and never will, admit that they are responsible for the disaster.
And they all will never forget of give up the power they now have.
God help us. Or we can help ourselves by getting rid of them.