It is estimated that approximately 25% of beds in hospitals are occupied by people living with dementia. Their length of stay is often longer than for people without dementia and there can also be delays in supporting them to leave hospital.
Page last reviewed: 15/05/2018
Source: Reasons why people with dementia are admitted to a general hospital in an emergency; National Mental Health Dementia and Neurology Intelligence Network; Public Health England
Source: Lakey, L (2009) Counting the cost: Caring for people with dementia on hospital wards published by the Alzheimer’s Society
Source: Sampson, E (2009) Dementia in the acute hospital: prospective cohort study of prevalence and mortality published in The British Journal of Psychiatry 195 (1) 61-66; DOI:10.1192/bjp.bp.108.055335
Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, Admitted Patient Care – England, 2015-16 [NS]; NHS Digital
Source: The Right Care; creating dementia friendly hospitals. Dementia Care in Acute Hospitals a report by the Demenetia Action Alliance
Source: Focus on dementia (Jan 2016); Health and Social Care Information Centre [now NHS Digital]
Source: The Right Care; creating dementia friendly hospitals. Dementia Care in Acute Hospitals a report by the Dementia Action Alliance
Source: The Prime Minister’s Challenge on Dementia; Department of Health (2015)
Dementia training
One of the goals of the Challenge on Dementia was to increase training of NHS staff to ensure that people living with dementia received the best possible care in hospital. This dementia training programme has been developed and administered by Health Education England (HEE).
There are three levels of training: Tier 1, 2 and 3. Tier 1 is general awareness, skills and attitudes for all staff. Tier 2 is for those who have regular contact with people living with dementia while tier 3 is specialist expert training for those who diagnose, design care plans and dementia service provision.
For more information on dementia training, click to visit the HEE website.
Source: Royal College of Psychiatrists, (2017). National Audit of Dementia care in general hospitals 2016-2017: Third round of audit report.
Source: Royal College of Psychiatrists, (2017). National Audit of Dementia care in general hospitals 2016-2017: Third round of audit report.