New funding announced for NHS dementia care improvements

The government has announced a new 90 million pound package of measures that aim to enhance the standard of dementia care in the UK.

Money will be spent on diagnosing two-thirds of people with dementia by March 2015. As part of this, NHS England will work with local areas that are known to be affected by particularly significant delays in dementia  diagnosis.

Additionally, Dr Dennis Gillings has been appointed World Dementia Envoy to raise funds for research towards a cure, while more than 190,000 staff members at UK businesses M&S, Argos, Homebase, Lloyds Bank and Lloyds Pharmacy will learn to support customers who have dementia.

This comes as part of wider efforts to tackle the disease in the UK that were outlined at the recent G8 summit in London last December. These include a planned twofold increase in funding for research into dementia by 2025.

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "It is my mission as health secretary to make this country the best place in the world to get a dementia diagnosis, as well as a global leader in the fight to find a cure."