4th Feb 10
£23 billion annually spent on dementia sufferers
by Harry Oldfield
A new report has shown that dementia is costing the country £23 billion a year, more than cancer and heart disease combined.
The number of sufferers of dementia is about 822,000, and also 17 per cent higher than previously thought and will pass the one million mark prior to 2025, according to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust.
Showing stark contrasts in research funding, it is estimated that for every pound spent on dementia studies, £12 is spent on investigating cancer and £3 on heart disease.
The report also showed that the overall annual cost dwarfs the £12 billion cost for cancer care and the £8 billion for heart disease.
The £23 billion comprises of £9 billion in social care costs, £12 billion in unpaid care and £1.2 billion on other health care costs.
Researchers found that dementia patients cost the economy £27,657 each year, almost five times the amount of a cancer patient and eight times that of someone suffering from heart disease. The extent of unpaid carers and long-term institutional care is the reason for the amount of costs.
A big variation in the research funding was also revealed in the study, called the Dementia 2010 report. It also calculated that £295 is spent on research for every person with cancer, compared with just £61 for each person with dementia, and it documents a diagnosis gap between the expected number of people with dementia and the number of patients with dementia on the registers of GPs.
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