Hospitals have made important changes to improve dementia care, but staff say more support is needed

Hospitals in England and Wales have made many positive changes aimed at making hospitals more ‚Äúdementia-friendly‚Äù, an audit shows. Overall nearly 70% of carers rated care as excellent or very good, and 75% said that the person with dementia was definitely treated with respect by staff.  Many more hospitals are providing dementia awareness training to all groups of staff, and 96% have a training framework for dementia care, up from 23% in the first round of audit in 2011. Nearly all hospitals (94%), have created dementia ‚Äúchampions‚Äù to lead change and support staff, following a recommendation made in Round 2.  Staff however said they could not always access specialist support, especially out of hours.

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Nineteen percent of staff surveyed said that patients with dementia had nutritional needs met only some of the time, and five percent said their needs were not met.  Three quarters of staff (73%) said they could obtain food 24/7 for their patients. Food outside of regular mealtimes is necessary for people with dementia as many patients forget to eat or only eat little and often, because dementia has disrupted their sense of routine. 

The National Audit of Dementia, commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) as part of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP), reviewed case notes of 10,047 patients with a diagnosis or current history of dementia and questionnaires from 14,416 staff and 4664 carers from 199 hospitals across England and Wales.  The audit is managed by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in partnership with organisations representing healthcare professionals, people with dementia and carers.