Critics have questioned the ethics of carrying out screening for dementia, part of the work proposed for a new network of memory clinics in England and Wales, when evidence of the effectiveness of current drugs for the disease is limited.

Iain Chalmers, editor of the James Lind Library and formerly of the Cochrane Collaboration, speaking at a Lancet conference in London last week, said that he was sceptical about the clinics.

“People ask why NICE [the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence] is limiting access …