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Dementia Assessment and Referral data collection – April 2019

The Collection

The April 2019 data for the Dementia Assessment and Referral data collection in England by NHS England were released on 3rd July 2019 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

The collection’s purpose is to improve the identification of older patients with dementia and delirium, to monitor appropriate assessment and to prompt appropriate referral and follow up after they leave hospital. Three measures are reported – the number and proportion of patients aged 75 and over admitted as an emergency for more than 72 hours:

  1. who have a diagnosis of dementia or delirium or to whom case finding is applied; [Find]
  2. who, if identified as potentially having dementia or delirium, are appropriately assessed; [Assess/Investigate], and,
  • where the outcome was positive or inconclusive, are referred on to specialist services. [Refer]

The Dementia Assessment and Referral collection was retired as a CQUIN collection at the start of April 2016 but has been retained in the standard contract as a mandatory submission for acute trusts. The desired level of performance is at least 90% on each part of the indicator. Data are not collected from community trusts or CCGs.

The summary results for the current period and comparison with the previous period are presented in the tables below.

Monthly Publication – April 2019

Data Returns

  March 2019 April 2019
Total number of returns submitted by NHS trusts providing acute funded care 137 137
Number of nil returns (these are excluded from the results presented below) 4 3

 

Data by Total Patients

  March 2019 April 2019
% of patients aged 75 and over admitted as an emergency for more than 72 hours who were initially identified or given case finding for potential dementia 85.1% 84.7%
% of patients initially identified or found as potentially having dementia who were further appropriately assessed 92.1% 92.0%
% of patients whose assessment outcome was positive or inconclusive who were referred for specialist services

 

94.2% 94.4%

 

Data by Acute Trusts

  March 2019 April 2019
% of trusts achieving at least 90% in carrying out initial identification (using case finding) for potential cases of dementia amongst patients aged 75 and over who were admitted as an emergency for more than 72 hours 61.7%

(82 Trusts)

62.7%

(84 Trusts)

% of trusts achieving at least 90% in carrying out further appropriate assessments

 

70.7%

(94 Trusts)

71.6%

(96 Trusts)

% of trusts achieving at least 90% in referring on to specialist services

 

72.2%

(96 Trusts)

72.4%

(97 Trusts)

% of trusts achieving at least 90% in all three measures 47.4%

(63 trusts)

46.3%

(62 Trusts)

 

The full data tables and the return guidance can be found on the NHS England website:

http://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/dementia/