It seems that not enough cases of dementia are being
diagnosed: only about fifty percent, apparently. Now you might wonder how exactly they go
about counting the undiagnosed cases – but that’s not the point right now. The point is that the NHS has a
solution. For the next six months, GPs
will be paid £55 for each new case they identify.
That’ll get the stats up to where we want them.
Now I wouldn’t dream of suggesting that there are any
unscrupulous doctors out there, but it does set a bit of a precedent, doesn’t
it? My brother nailed it when he
visualised a cartoon (which would have been worthy of the late, irreplaceable
David Austin*):
Patient to doctor: “I have absolutely no memory of offering you
£60 not to diagnose me with Alzheimer’s!”
* Austin did the
pocket cartoon in the Guardian for many years, right up to his early death in
2005. The paper wisely opted not to try
to replace him. He took no prisoners.
Perhaps my favourite of the few I can remember was in about November 2002, during
the lead-up to the Iraq War. Several
generals are in conference, looking worried.
One of them says: “But – what if
he really has got WMDs?”
I have a friend whose mother clearly has Alzheimer's, but whose father won't take his wife to the doctor because she'd be upset to know the diagnosis. I have another friend whose wife's diagnosis was delayed by three years because the doctor refused to refer her for appraisal. Neither doctor deserves fifty-five quid. Mind you, I know how to fake an Alzheimer's exam, if they tested me, could I have the £55, I wonder, for a self-diagnosis?
ReplyDeleteI was asked recently to participate in an Alzheimer's study that was pursuing the premise of a genetic marker for Alzheimer's plus the use of a low dose of a diabetic drug to control it. There were thousands in the sample, and the usual blinds and double blinds. When exactly 439 of the group were diagnosed with Alzheimer's, the study would terminate.
ReplyDeleteI needed to find a partner who could shadow me and make separate reports on my cognition. I couldn't find anyone who had that much time, so I had to decline.
But, 439 people. I ask you....
Yes, Z, but then you'd have to make a miraculous recovery, and that doesn't happen (unless you name's Ernest Saunders).
ReplyDeleteJoanne, transposing your experience across the pond: £55 x 439 = £24,145. Add on a bit for admin: obviously, the budget for the study was £25,000.