Figures show big increase in emergency admissions for dementia patients

There has been a large rise in the number of emergency hospital admissions for people with dementia in England, with many having to remain in hospital for months because of a lack of social care support in the community, an analysis by the Alzheimer’s Society has shown.

There were 379 004 emergency admissions for people with dementia in England in 2017-18, compared with 279 265 in 2012-13 (a rise of 35%), the charity’s analysis of NHS England’s Hospital Episode Statistics dataset found.1

In 2017-18 there were 40 083 patients with dementia who remained in hospital for between a month and a year, including 412 who were in hospital for over six months.

More than half (237 881) of the 435 600 people …