More people with dementia are accessing memory services commissioned by Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England, according to survey results published by The NHS Information Centre.

The voluntary survey of PCTs suggests 951 people per PCT on average accessed the services in 2010/11, compared to 605 in 2008/09. Today's results estimate what PCTs commission and spend regarding Memory Services, a key area of the NHS's National Dementia Strategy.

These services are intended to provide early detection and diagnosis of dementia, in line with NICE guidance published in 2006.

Conducted between May and June 2011, the survey received 119 responses overall from the 149 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and Care Trusts in England – an 80 per cent response rate. However not all participants responded to the survey in full.

Other findings suggest, of respondent organisations:

• 94 per cent commissioned memory services at 31 March 2011, with a further four per cent intending to implement these services in the future.
• PCT spend was £593,200 on average on Memory Services in 2010/11, compared to £486,000 in 2008/9. This does not take into account PCT geographical area or population size.

NHS Information Centre Chief Executive Tim Straughan said: “Although this is a voluntary survey, today's report offers the first ever estimates about how much PCTs spend on Memory Services and how many people are using them.

“This information provides a valuable basis from which to examine, compare and plan future provision of these services, which are clearly a key part of the NHS strategy to tackle dementia.”

The report, which follows provisional results published in July, is at
www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/memoryservicesfinalresults11

Notes to editors

1. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care (The NHS IC) is England's authoritative, central, independent source of health and social care information. It works with a wide range of health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researcher, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS IC also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.
2. For further information about the Government's National Dementia Strategy, visit the Department of Health website: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/SocialCare/NationalDementiaStrategy/index.htm
3. The survey collected information relating to three financial years – 2008/09 to 2010/11. Extra money was given to PCTs as part of their annual revenue allocation in 2009/10 and 2010/11 for dementia services.
4. Some of the financial data are provided as estimates and certain metrics (spend and number of service users) are also presented as arithmetic means (i.e. average per organisation). Where averages are calculated, they are based on the number of organisations providing a non-null response (i.e. organisations not providing data for that metric are not included in the denominator count). 5. For media enquires please call 0845 257 6990 or contact mediaenquiries@ic.nhs.uk