Hi,
My husband has been diagnosed with mixed dementia, Alzheimer's and Vascular. He first went to see the GP in January this year and it was decided he needed to attend the hospital for tests. The resulting diagnosis we eventually got in a phone call at the beginning of September, after long waits for a scan and phone conversations with the consultant.
However, I have noticed some deterioration over the last few weeks which concerns me. He does not yet have the medication we were told during the diagnosis phone call would be prescribed for him. They were just waiting for the results of his ECG and would then write to the GP with details of the medication to be prescribed. All that was completed by early September but we are still waiting for him to get treatment and now it is almost the end of October.
I know there is no cure but I so desperately hope the medication will slow down the pace of the disease. The whole process has dragged out for so long and I can see he is having more problems as time passes. I know everything is affected by COVID, but we are in a low-risk area and the hospital does not have a lot of people being treated for the virus. It concerns me that it is taking so long from diagnosis to starting medication when we were promised it would be started and all that was required was for a letter from the Consultant to the GP.
That letter has not yet arrived and I am wondering if other people are experiencing the same long delays in the treatment. I realise the NHS is very busy but people like my husband and many many others still need to be treated. Can I ask if anyone else is experiencing such long delays in starting treatment, particularly if you are in a low COVID case area?
We have been through the same process with my mother and with my husband's parents they all developed dementia and we had to cope with all three of them. It was a long and very difficult time in our lives caring for them and then having to contribute to their fees in a care home. It left us emotionally and financially drained. This eventually ending in 2014 when my mother died. I am heartbroken that only six years later we are facing this again ourselves. I know what is ahead of us and I dread it. I am badly disabled with arthritis and have angina, I need to use a wheelchair outside of the house and I have a lot of serious concerns about how I am going to care for him.
I just wish the process of starting treatment was not taking so long, but perhaps I am being unreasonable in my desperation to keep him as well as possible for as long as possible.
My husband has been diagnosed with mixed dementia, Alzheimer's and Vascular. He first went to see the GP in January this year and it was decided he needed to attend the hospital for tests. The resulting diagnosis we eventually got in a phone call at the beginning of September, after long waits for a scan and phone conversations with the consultant.
However, I have noticed some deterioration over the last few weeks which concerns me. He does not yet have the medication we were told during the diagnosis phone call would be prescribed for him. They were just waiting for the results of his ECG and would then write to the GP with details of the medication to be prescribed. All that was completed by early September but we are still waiting for him to get treatment and now it is almost the end of October.
I know there is no cure but I so desperately hope the medication will slow down the pace of the disease. The whole process has dragged out for so long and I can see he is having more problems as time passes. I know everything is affected by COVID, but we are in a low-risk area and the hospital does not have a lot of people being treated for the virus. It concerns me that it is taking so long from diagnosis to starting medication when we were promised it would be started and all that was required was for a letter from the Consultant to the GP.
That letter has not yet arrived and I am wondering if other people are experiencing the same long delays in the treatment. I realise the NHS is very busy but people like my husband and many many others still need to be treated. Can I ask if anyone else is experiencing such long delays in starting treatment, particularly if you are in a low COVID case area?
We have been through the same process with my mother and with my husband's parents they all developed dementia and we had to cope with all three of them. It was a long and very difficult time in our lives caring for them and then having to contribute to their fees in a care home. It left us emotionally and financially drained. This eventually ending in 2014 when my mother died. I am heartbroken that only six years later we are facing this again ourselves. I know what is ahead of us and I dread it. I am badly disabled with arthritis and have angina, I need to use a wheelchair outside of the house and I have a lot of serious concerns about how I am going to care for him.
I just wish the process of starting treatment was not taking so long, but perhaps I am being unreasonable in my desperation to keep him as well as possible for as long as possible.
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