Patients wrongly told they may have dementia by GPs

jimbo 111

Registered User
Jan 23, 2009
5,080
0
North Bucks
Don’t shoot the messenger ,it was in the Daily Mail
jimbo

Patients wrongly told they may have dementia by GPs on a controversial £55 bonus scheme, researchers warn
Initiative was launched by the NHS to boost shockingly low detection rates
But leading doctors and campaigners branded it ‘unethical’
They warned patients would be wrongly labelled as having dementia
A controversial scheme to pay GPs £55 for every new case of dementia on their books is leading to patients being wrongly told they may have the devastating illness, researchers warn.
The initiative was launched by the NHS in the autumn to boost shockingly low detection rates and meet ambitious targets.
Leading doctors and campaigners branded it ‘unethical’ and warned patients would be wrongly labelled as having dementia.
Now researchers at the University of Sheffield say there is evidence these concerns have been realised.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...us-scheme-researchers-warn.html#ixzz3SePVyLPH
 

Beate

Registered User
May 21, 2014
12,179
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London
To be honest, it sounds like typical Daily Mail scaremongering again. For a dementia diagnosis you need memory tests, blood tests and a scan. We all know how long it takes to get a proper diagnosis. It is highly unlikely that a few months of a £55 incentive will have changed that.
 

jeany123

Registered User
Mar 24, 2012
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74
Durham
To be honest, it sounds like typical Daily Mail scaremongering again. For a dementia diagnosis you need memory tests, blood tests and a scan. We all know how long it takes to get a proper diagnosis. It is highly unlikely that a few months of a £55 incentive will have changed that.

My husband just had a memory test, no blood test or scan before he was diagnosed with dementia, but I agree it does sound like scaremongering,
 

Saffie

Registered User
Mar 26, 2011
22,513
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Near Southampton
To be honest, it sounds like typical Daily Mail scaremongering again. For a dementia diagnosis you need memory tests, blood tests and a scan.

Actually you don't.
My husband had a blood test as I suggested he might be low in B12 as he was showing signs of confusion, for which B12 can be a cause.
A blood test cannot diagnose dementia though it can help to eliminate other causes of the confusion.

My husband never had a scan and he achieved a high normal score on the memory test.

When the confusion was apparant to the GP, he did not diagnose dementia but he referred him to a consultant psychiatrist and it was he who gave my husband the memory test. He said the level of education and intelligence was the reason for the high score and diagnosed my husband as having Vascular dementia, with possible Alzheimer's included, on the basis of my husband's history of Peripheral Artery disease caused by his long term diabetes.

p.s. I think you will find that rather than shooting the DM instead of Jimbo, if that is your intention, you should look to the University of Sheffield instead. They are the ones who have issued the report!
 
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jimbo 111

Registered User
Jan 23, 2009
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North Bucks
I am well aware of many members opinions of articles printed in certain newspapers
and as always , I respect their points of view
But I wonder sometimes if they are more influenced by their dislike of a certain paper than considering the facts of the report
The article that I posted from the Daily Mail includes the following facts facts

Lead researcher Dr Daniel Blackburn, consultant neurologist at the University of Sheffield, said the initiative may be having a ‘devastating consequence’ on patients and families.

Dr Blackburn, whose study was uncovered by Pulse magazine, said: ‘We already know there are long waiting lists to be seen and if you send more people who don’t have dementia into those clinics … it slows down the process.
So if we are interested in the subject there is scope to continue by reading the source of the DM article
It is always wise to have an open mind to all information and in this case I don't suggest that the' Pulse' should not be critically examined
But rather than dispense with the subject ( which has relevance to members of TP) just because it appeared in the DM surely it is worth following up their scourse
jimbo


Pulse is the UK’s leading medical monthly publication, counting more than 70% of GPs among our regular readers
, and as a result our website pulsetoday.co.uk is a must-visit web destination for GPs and other primary care professionals. Pulse magazine was launched in 1960 as an all-purpose toolkit for general practice, designed to keep GPs up to date with the latest practical information about their work



Soaring numbers of patients without dementia are being caught up in the PM’s diagnosis drive, with over half of those referred by GPs to memory clinics turning out to not have the disease, experts have warned
Neurologists in Sheffield have warned of potentially ‘devasting’ consequences for patients as over half (52%) of patients referred to them for confirmation of a diagnosis of dementia after the introduction of the case-finding DES in the 2012/13 GP contract had psychiatric or functional memory problems, but not dementia.
This compared with a rate of 25-30% previously.
The warning comes as the Government announced plans to step up the Prime Minister’s Challenge on dementia, including a new six-week waiting time standard for patients referred by their GP to a memory clinic.
But the Sheffield neurologists warned that the PM’s project was picking up lots of patients without dementia, despite recent data showing a 10% jump in the number of people placed on the dementia register following a scheme to pay practices £55 per additional dementia diagnosis since last autumn.
The team of neurology consultants from Sheffield Teaching Hospital and the University of Sheffield looked at 150 referrals and showed that this boost in diagnosis rates may have come at a cost.
Writing in a letter published in the journal Age and Ageing, they said that the Government ‘may not achieve its targets in reducing the dementia gap, will increase the strain on GPs and memory clinics [and] may adversely affect waiting times and the provision of good-quality post-diagnosis care and support for people with dementia and their families’.

Read more
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/clinica...ase-finding-des/20009264.article#.VOxLiRofyvE


 

CeliaW

Registered User
Jan 29, 2009
5,643
0
Hampshire
This isn't the first time the Daily Mail have reported this as a quick Google will show. However, (although I agree that there shouldn't be a cash incentive for diagnosis - although maybe for empathic treatment?!) - timing is all as this scheme finishes at the end of March 2015 when it will obviously no longer be such a headline pull.
 

Saffie

Registered User
Mar 26, 2011
22,513
0
Near Southampton
Pulse is the UK’s leading medical monthly publication, counting more than 70% of GPs among our regular readers,
I'm sure a lot of 'Pulse' issues might be delivered to GPs but as to how many are actually read, I have my doubts!
WhenI worked in the medical library of a hospital's Post-grad centre, we had piles of GP journals donated still in their plastic wrappers!
We used to read them as they were the least cerebral of the vast array of journals we kept!
 
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