Oxfordshire MP urges Government to prepare for ‘dementia treatment revolution’
Oxfordshire MP says "the NHS cannot yet cope" with the next generation of dementia treatments
An Oxfordshire MP is urging the government to ensure the NHS prepared for a ‘dementia treatment revolution’ and deliver the next generation of treatments.
Two disease modifying therapies have already been approved for Alzheimer's by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), while more than a hundred more are currently in development.
Henley and Thame MP, Freddie van Mierlo is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Access to Medicines and Medical Devices.
He’s warning that ‘while science is moving quickly, the NHS is not yet equipped to deliver what patients will soon need’.
He says, “these medicines chart a path to a time when Alzheimer’s and other dementias are treatable conditions”.
Speaking in Parliament last week, Mr van Mierlo highlighted specific challenges across the NHS.
He says these include long waits to see GPs, limited capacity at memory clinics, and serious shortfalls in access to diagnostic tools such as MRI and PET scans.
He also called for the wider use of emerging blood-based biomarker tests, such as those being trialled at the Warneford Hospital in Oxfordshire.
Mr van Mierlo also said: “The truth is the NHS cannot yet cope with the innovation we all want in dementia. My message to the government is simple. Get ready.”
He added: “It is not the ICBs the public are angry with when they cannot access treatment. It is the government. People expect the Government to take responsibility. Not pass the buck.”
We’ve contacted the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England for a comment.