MPs call for Dementia Fund to help people with dementia pay for care

A group of cross-party MPs is calling for a £2.4bn Dementia Fund to help pay for the care of people with dementia, as they don’t get free nursing care from the NHS.

People with dementia typically spend £100,000 on their care, according to the Alzheimer’s Society, which has published a report about the need for high-quality person-centred care which would be paid for by a dedicated Dementia Fund.

The report is being supported by 68 MPs who have written an open letter to health secretary Matt Hancock asking for people with dementia to be given personal budgets, which they can spend on care home costs or home adaptations.

The letter says ‘While people with cancer have their treatment costs covered by the NHS, those with dementia struggle to finance the increasing costs of care as council-run social care is cut back.’

The letter written by MP Rachael Maskell, chair of the APPG for Ageing and Older people, was signed by 68 MPs including Conservative MPs Andrea Jenkyns and Mark Prisk, Labour MPs Rachael Maskell and Rosie Cooper as well as Heidi Allen of Change UK and Caroline Lucas of the Green Party.

'It's time to end the dementia penalty'

Jeremy Hughes, chief executive at Alzheimer’s Society, said: “If you develop cancer or heart disease, your care is covered by the NHS. People with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia have the right and expectation that the NHS will also support them. We are calling for urgent investment in high quality care through a dedicated Dementia Fund. It’s time to end the dementia penalty that‘s preventing people from getting the care they need and deserve.

“The overwhelming cross party support shown through the open letter to the Health Secretary illustrates how indisputable this crisis is. A Dementia Fund will provide help now to remedy the situation for people with dementia, while we wait for the Green Paper and a long-term sustainable funding solution for social care.”

The letter addresses the social care system struggles, and the need for urgent investment into services and support for people with dementia in absence of the long-awaited social care Green Paper.

A quarter of hospital beds are taken up by people with dementia, and the Alzheimer’s Society report found there were 72,496 emergency admissions of over-65s with dementia in 2016-2017, an increase of 70 per cent in just five years.

The charity argues that the Dementia Fund would benefit the NHS in the long term, as fewer people living with dementia would be forced to go to A&E at crisis point, and the Fund would ensure better support is in place to enable people living with dementia to leave hospital as soon as they are well enough.

Disparity of care between mum with dementia and daughter with cancer

Ruth Sharp, from Bournemouth, whose mother Mary has vascular dementia, was denied help from social services because they said Mary could still use the toilet, even though she forgot to eat meals, flooded the bathroom, and almost set herself on fire with the cooker.

Ruth and her family could only afford for a home care worker to come two mornings a week to take Mary out for coffee.

Despite the family’s best efforts, it wasn't long before Mary suffered a fall at home and cut her head. She spent a month in hospital before going to a care home, which was funded by the sale of Mary’s home. Although the care home was good at first, it changed management. Ruth has since moved Mary to a new home where she’s finally getting good care, but this home costs an extra £500 per week.

Ruth is now battling cancer for the second time in her life, and feels there is an injustice between the disparity of care she and her mother gets.

Her cancer treatments and needs are being completely funded by the NHS, but her mother and the family have been left to pay huge costs to ensure Mary receives proper care.

Ruth says: “We have fought in the past for help with funding, but we have accepted that it isn’t a fight we can win. Any money that our mother has or that goes into her bank will go to paying towards her care. And despite dementia being a medical condition, it is a battle to get help to pay for medical care.”