Dementia injustice is killing 76,000 every year – check YOUR area now

Dementia patients face a postcode lottery of care, with the NHS failing to hit diagnosis targets in more than half of the country, damning figures reveal.

The Daily Mail today launches a drive to defeat dementia after shocking statistics showed the disease is still the UK’s biggest killer, accounting for one in nine deaths and claiming 76,000 lives each year.

This newspaper’s Defeating Dementia campaign, in association with the Alzheimer’s Society, aims to raise awareness of the disease, increase early diagnosis, boost research and improve care.

Dementia patients suffer a ‘cruel injustice’ as they often face higher care bills and there are no drugs available on the NHS to slow down, cure or prevent the condition.

However, at odds with its impact, the disease receives less funding for research than some other major illnesses, such as cancer, despite costing the economy a staggering £42billion a year.

Charities fear progress could stall after dementia was removed from official NHS planning guidance this year, effectively signalling to managers and clinicians that they should deprioritise it.

The health service aims to identify at least two in three people living with dementia, so they can get the help and treatment they need. But rates collapsed during the pandemic and have never recovered, leaving tens of thousands to struggle alone.

Tim Baverstock, from the Alzheimer’s Society, said: ‘A third of people in England and Northern Ireland and nearly half of people in Wales living with dementia still don’t have a diagnosis. 

‘This means that thousands are facing the devastating realities of dementia without access to the vital care, support and treatment a diagnosis can bring.

‘Alzheimer’s Society has been working tirelessly with successive governments to improve dementia diagnosis rates.

‘We’ve seen a gradual improvement in the national rate, which is on the precipice of hitting the 66.7 per cent target, but sadly access to a diagnosis can vary greatly from one postcode to another.’

Everyone experiences dementia differently. Use this checklist to help you make a note of your symptoms before you talk to your GP.

Health minister Stephen Kinnock, whose mother Glenys fought Alzheimer’s in her final years, said: ‘This is an issue that touches so many families across the country, and it’s right that the Daily Mail is shining a light on it with this important campaign.

‘Getting a timely diagnosis can be life-changing – it means people can access the care and support they need to live well for longer. This Government is making progress, with diagnosis rates rising, but there’s much more to do.

‘That’s why we’re delivering the first-ever Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia – setting national standards to improve care quality and ensure every person with dementia gets the support they deserve.’

Analysis by the Daily Mail shows the NHS is detecting only around one in three cases (37.2 per cent) in the City of London – less than in any other local authority in the country. 

Health workers in Stoke-on-Trent are doing almost three times better with a rate of 95.3 per cent, the highest in the country.

The NHS is failing to meet the Government’s ‘ambition’ of finding 66.7 per cent of dementia cases in most local authorities in England (159 out of 296), with the national average standing at 66.5 per cent. 

If the rates in every local authority were as high as Stoke there would have been an extra 215,432 diagnoses in England.

And even a smaller improvement in performance, so the target was met in all authorities, would have led to an extra 24,639 cases being found.

The NHS uses demographic data, such as the age of residents, to estimate the number of people likely to be living with dementia in a given area and compares this to the number with the condition in GP records. 

It estimates there are 747,269 people with dementia in England, but only 496,715 have received a diagnosis.

Dementia patients are supposed to have their care plan and medication reviewed every year but, astonishingly, only 58 per cent had these checks in 2024/25, meaning many may be taking an unnecessary cocktail of drugs or not having their needs met.

Meanwhile, 35,227 dementia patients were prescribed anti-psychotic medication in October despite having no diagnosis of psychosis. 

Such drugs are typically used in these circumstances as a ‘chemical cosh’ to calm distressed dementia patients but experts say they can often be avoided by providing people with the help they need before they become agitated. 

Mr Baverstock said: ‘The pending Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia gives the Government an opportunity to set ambitious new targets and end the cruel injustice of dementia for people living with it, now and in the future. 

‘This should include targets not only on the diagnosis rate, but also around ensuring people get an early and accurate diagnosis, including dementia type.

‘Meaningful steps must be taken to tackle the postcode lottery in dementia diagnosis now.’

The latest data shows that 76,894 people died from dementia in the UK in 2024 – 11.8 per cent of deaths. Deaths from other major conditions are falling but dementia deaths continue to rise, having increased from 74,261 in 2022 and 75,393 in 2023.

Hilary Evans-Newton, chief executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK, which aggregated and analysed the data, said: ‘These figures are heartbreaking.

‘Dementia is still the biggest killer in the UK, tearing families apart and placing an enormous strain on our society, our economy and our NHS.’

Dr Jeremy Isaacs, NHS national clinical director, said: ‘The number of people diagnosed with dementia is at a record high and just 0.2 per cent away from our national ambition. The NHS urges anyone concerned about someone they know developing dementia to encourage them to see their GP for an initial assessment.’ 

‘When Pru was diagnosed, we were told we should deal with it the best we could…’

By Kristina Wemyss

The launch of the Daily Mail’s campaign against dementia comes just weeks after actress Prunella Scales died at the age of 93.

The Fawlty Towers star first experienced difficulties with her memory in 2001, but it was not until 2012 that she was diagnosed with a specific type of vascular dementia.

Her death in October came less than a year after that of her husband, actor Timothy West, 90, who had been open about how the condition had affected their relationship. 

Writing for the Alzheimer’s Society, he said: ‘I was aware that something was bothering Pru when I saw her perform on stage at Greenwich Theatre in 2001.

‘Always a consummate professional who knew all her lines, I noticed that she was grappling for some of the script.’

However, it wasn’t until much later that she was diagnosed, and this is something the Defeating Dementia campaign is looking to change, through a checklist people can use to spot symptoms early in themselves or in loved ones.

‘I don’t recall us being pushed towards any specific treatment or support,’ West wrote. ‘I feel that, if we had been, it may have helped us. But at the time, it was very much “carry on and deal with it as best you can”.’

The couple, who married in 1963, did not want her diagnosis to define them.

Ms Scales continued to work in theatre and television – even contributing to the audio version of her husband’s book Pru And Me, which detailed their later years together.

In it, West wrote: ‘[We] have exactly the same conversation every day of the week and it’s something I never tire of.

‘Repetition doesn’t really exist in Pru’s world and the look on her face when she enters the room and sees me sitting there on the sofa waiting for her makes me realise just how much I love her.’

The couple’s son Samuel West, 59, recently recalled the ‘last proper conversation’ he had with his mother. 

Speaking on the Rosebud podcast with Gyles Brandreth just before her death in October, he said: ‘A couple of years ago, she said to me, “How old am I?” And I said, “You’re 91, Mum,” and she said, “Ninety-one? F***.” Beautifully enunciated, beautifully timed.’

Margaret Thatcher was another figure affected by dementia, but, in true keeping with the Iron Lady, it was not until the publication of her daughter Carol’s memoir in 2008 that it was revealed the former prime minister had been struggling with her memory since 2000.

Her health declined after her husband Denis’s death from pancreatic cancer in 2003. Carol said it was ‘truly awful’ for her mother, ‘not least because her dementia meant she kept forgetting he was dead’, and she had to deliver the bad news over and over again.

TV presenter Fiona Phillips, 64, said she had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in 2022.