Dementia will affect most of us one way or another. It is imperative the NHS learns to cope with it
News that patients are waiting up to two years to receive a diagnosis for dementia is disturbing but not altogether surprising.
With the NHS still struggling to clear the backlog caused by the coronavirus, managers inevitably face difficult choices about which cases should take priority.
And faced with a choice between prioritising conditions which pose an immediate threat to life, and those which are more about long-term quality of life, it is perhaps inevitable that resources will be directed towards the former ahead of the latter.
Nevertheless, something is badly wrong when patients are having to live with dementia for two years before their condition is even recognised, let alone treated. Not only are these delays traumatic for the patients themselves, it also causes great hardship for their families who have to suffer the hardship of seeing a loved one deteriorate before their very eyes.
Dementia is one of the cruellest of illnesses, reducing once strong, intelligent people into shadows of their former selves. And in an ageing society, it is likely that most of us will be touched by it one way or another in years to come.
Ensuring that sufferers are diagnosed promptly and receive the treatment they need should not be beyond the wit of our health service.
