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VICTIMS OF THE COVID DEMENTIA DISASTER

Revealed: How shocking 50,000 cases were missed in lockdown

By Rosie Taylor

UP to 50,000 dementia cases were missed during lockdown, it emerged last night.

Around one in ten new sufferers went undiagnosed because referrals to memory clinics all but stopped at the start of the Covid pandemic.

Experts warned the backlog could put further pressure on overstretched hospitals if they – rather than specialist units – have to deal with patients not known to have dementia.

It is feared even more cases will be missed if virus restrictions return in autumn or winter.

James White of the Alzheimer’s

Society said: ‘Thousands of people with dementia have remained in the dark about their condition, unable to get help that is most effective the earlier you get it.’

He said the backlog came on top of the difficulty of helping sufferers whose routines and activities had been devastated by lockdown. In other developments:

A Mail audit found the first year

of the pandemic saw hospital appointments for the six major non-Covid illnesses plummet by around 330,000;

■ Hopes rose that the third wave of Covid might be ebbing after cases in England dropped to below 30,000 yesterday, a fall of nearly 20,000 in a week;

■ Haulage bosses said the self-isolation ‘pingdemic’ could wreck the supermarket supply chain in two to three weeks;

■ Train drivers and binmen are set to be given an exemption from quarantine;

■ Health Secretary Sajid Javid was forced to apologise for a tweet saying the nation should not ‘cower’ from Covid.

The figures on missed cases were revealed by Alistair Burns, national clinical director for dementia and older people’s mental health at

NHS England and NHS Improvement. Around 475,000 people in England are normally officially registered with their GP as having dementia – around two thirds of all those with the condition – but since the pandemic struck that number has fallen as low as 427,000. Professor Burns said

‘Lost out in the pandemic’

GPs ‘did as they were told’ and stopped referring patients for dementia assessments at the start of lockdown in March 2020. Referrals resumed slowly again last summer but declined again during the second lockdown.

The University of Manchester professor added: ‘There was an effect of 40,000 to 50,000 people who should have been on the dementia register but who were not. That’s the kind of figure we are talking about.

‘We do hear a lot about the effect of lockdown on cancer and stroke [diagnosis rates], and that’s absolutely right, but there is an effect on dementia as well.’

He also said dementia sufferers had ‘disproportionately lost out during the pandemic’ by being isolated from family, friends and their communities. The professor was addressing the Dementias 2021 conference in London in a personal capacity.

Dr Hilda Hayo of Dementia UK said the charity had been inundated with calls about delays in accessing a diagnosis. She added: ‘A diagnosis of dementia can give families clarity, help them

plan for future, and provide access to support services in the community. With significant delays in this process, then families with dementia will be further left behind.’

Dr Liam Fox, who worked as a GP before being elected as a Tory MP, last night advised ministers to ‘think carefully’ about how any new lockdown would impact the treatment of conditions such as dementia.

He added: ‘Having done so well so far we must not squander the vaccine dividend by being too cautious and put the economy at unnecessary risk, especially the small businesses that we require for our recovery.

‘We also need to think carefully about the impact on other health conditions that such measures could have.’

NHS figures show the dementia diagnosis rate in England declined steadily from March 2020 to this March, before gradually beginning to rise this spring.

But rates remain below normal levels, with the number assessed in the first few months of 2021 significantly lower than before the pandemic. GPs made 50 per cent fewer dementia assessments and 33 per cent fewer referrals to memory clinics in the six months to April 2021, compared with the six months to March 2019.

In response to Professor Burns’s comments, NHS England said: ‘It is understandable that during the pandemic, some older people felt they were unable to seek help for symptoms that may be suggestive of dementia, such as memory loss, but the number of referrals is now increasing and the NHS is offering support to patients and their families while they are waiting for a diagnosis.’

Some scientists have begun to talk of a return to restrictions as early as September, despite England opening up again only a week ago.

Chief medical officer Chris Whitty told an online event hosted by the Science Museum earlier this month: ‘I don’t think we should underestimate the fact that we could get into trouble again, surprisingly fast.

‘And I think, saying the numbers in hospitals are low now, that does not mean the numbers will be low in hospital in five, six, seven, eight weeks time – they could actually be really quite serious.

‘At that point, it looks as if things are not topping out, we do have to look again, and see where we think things are going.’

At a press conference in May, Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, said that if cases go up again in winter face coverings on public transport might be necessary. He added that ‘working from home if it’s appropriate to do so’ could continue in the longer term.

The Government has said it will hold a review in September to decide whether tougher coronavirus restrictions need to be imposed ahead of the winter.

‘Don’t squander the dividend’

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