Fixing dementia diagnosis won’t happen overnight – but with the right political will, it can happen. Our Blueprint for Dementia Diagnosis sets out the four areas where the Government and NHS must act over the next decade to ensure everyone gets a timely, accurate diagnosis and the support they deserve.

1. Set clear national standards

When you go to the doctor for most health problems, there are clear rules about what care you should get and how quickly. But with dementia, there aren’t consistent rules or standards across the UK about how services should work or how much support they should have.

This means that how and where you get diagnosed and how long it takes can be very different depending on where you live. In some places, people are sent to a hospital for specialist tests like brain scans. In others, a GP, a psychiatrist, or a different service might give the diagnosis.

We need clear national standards so that everyone gets the same quality of experience when worrying signs or symptoms develop — no matter where they live. This means working together with the NHS, healthcare professionals, dementia charities, and people living with dementia and their carers to set the right levels of staff and resources.

Right now, dementia is also missing from the NHS’s main waiting time target, which says patients should start treatment within 18 weeks of a GP referral. We want dementia to be treated the same as other neurological conditions, so people see a specialist within six weeks, and get a clear diagnosis and treatment plan within 18 weeks.

2. Help the NHS plan and provide better services  

Setting clear standards is important — but they won’t work unless the NHS has the right funding and support to meet them. Without this, dementia will keep being pushed to the back of the queue, and getting a diagnosis will stay difficult and slow.

Diagnosing dementia involves lots of different healthcare professionals, and NHS leaders need to create clear, easy-to-follow pathways, so everyone knows their role and people get the best diagnosis.

Right now, even with the hard work of doctors and nurses, access to specialist tests and staff is struggling to keep up. The number of people with dementia is expected to rise by 43% by 2040 and the demand for diagnoses is only going to rise. New polling shows that more than nine-in-ten UK adults between age 35-44 and 55-64 would actively seek a diagnosis in future if they thought they might be in the early stages of dementia. If we don’t plan and invest now, the NHS won’t be ready for this growing need.

We need the Government and NHS England to make national plans that forecast how many staff and what tools will be needed, and then fund those plans properly. This will help hospitals, community services, and GPs prepare and deliver the care people need — wherever they live.

3. Adopt new technology

New technology that could improve dementia diagnosis and speed up treatment is coming. Blood and saliva testing, as well as AI-assisted ultra-fast MRI brain imaging and eye scans, are being rapidly developed to help make diagnosis quicker.

But many local NHS services aren’t yet ready to use these new tools. In fact, only a third of psychiatrists leading dementia teams believe their services could start using new technology within a year.

Right now, the way new technologies are tested and introduced across the NHS is patchy and slow. To fix this, the Government and NHS leaders need to find better ways to speed up trials in hospitals and other places – and ensure that when new tests are ready, they can be rolled out quickly.

As well as ensuring new technologies get tested more widely in hospitals and other settings (like opticians and community diagnostic centres), the Government needs to work collaboratively with regulators, including the UK’s Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), to speed up approvals, so new tech reaches hospitals faster.

4. Make better use of patient data

As new tests and treatments are rolled out, it’s vital the NHS collects detailed data on how well they work, alongside more information about people living with dementia. This helps improve services and ensures everyone gets the best care.

Right now, the NHS collects and publishes limited national data on dementia. To really improve diagnosis and treatment, we need to collect more detailed information, like the age people are diagnosed, the type of dementia they have, and important factors like gender, ethnicity, and background.

We also want this information to be made publicly available in an easy-to-understand “dashboard.” This would enable people to see how their local dementia services are doing, hold the NHS accountable, and help the NHS to track and improve their care.

If you agree, then it’s time to act. Sign the petition: make sure people with dementia are seen.

For more information about dementia and why an early and accurate diagnosis is important, you can read more here.

Check out the Alzheimer’s Research UK RIA Foundation Member profile here  .