New approach to use of data in dementia care unveiled

The government has announced a new initiative that will see data being used more effectively to inform dementia care decisions.

Public Health England has published a new Dementia Profile that will provide access to local authority and clinical commissioning group (CCG)-level data across the entire dementia care pathway.

This will enable bespoke comparison between local authorities and CCG in England via a single interactive online platform, including information on dementia patient numbers broken down by area and age, the number who have received an NHS health check, rates of depression and emergency hospital admission figures.

Accompanying this is a new Data Catalogue listing and highlighting all dementia data currently available at CCG and local authority level.

Professor John Newton, chief knowledge officer at Public Health England, said: "Having all this data available in one place presents major opportunities to commissioners, local authorities and decision-makers to change how dementia and dementia services look across the country."

The national rate for the number of people with dementia aged 65 or over being admitted to hospital as an emergency in 2013-14 was 3,046 per 100,000. This new data approach will make it easier to see if any regions are significantly exceeding this.