Current status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 7 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02504 by Kevin Stewart on 23 September 2021, for what reason the data on specialist dementia beds is not held centrally, and what effect this has on its ability to (a) workforce plan and (b) target resources.
We commissioned and published in 2018 a first national independent expert report on specialist NHS dementia beds provision Transforming Specialist Dementia Hospital Care with recommendations for sector modernisation as part of wider whole-system reform in localities.
The report noted the most recent official figures at that time on numbers of NHS Old Age Psychiatry beds and Geriatric Medicine beds. These figures include people with an organic illness (dementia) and those with a functional illness (mental ill health conditions such as depression, bi-polar and schizophrenia) and the report noted that it was difficult to provide a precise number of patients with dementia in these settings, given the frequency of co-morbid conditions and under-diagnosis of dementia.
We continue to work with the author of the report as part of wider work since 2018 to support implementation of the report and to support local service modernisation, workforce planning and resourcing.