Dementia will strike down almost a million people in England within a
generation and the cost of treating them will soar to £35 billion per year,
a major study has disclosed.
This was the headline in a Telegraph article today.
The document, drawn up by experts in ageing and health for the King's Fund
think-tank, highlights the huge burden the disease will place on the state.
It estimates that the number of people suffering from dementia – which
includes several brain and body-wasting conditions – will rise more than 60
per cent by 2026, from 582,827 to 937,636. However, that is dwarfed by the
135 per cent rise in the predicted total care bill, from £14.8 billion to
£34.8 billion.
The National Institute of Clinical Excellence has been criticised for advising
that Alzheimer's drugs are given only to those in the “moderate”
phase of the disease, even though earlier treatment may help slow its
progress. Prescribing drugs to more people aged between 65 and 84 could be
cost-effective because it would save around £2.4 billion in care costs, the
report states.
It is interesting to note that the Telegraph article does not provide any explanations as to why there will be this massive increase, nor does it mention the report by name, or the 'experts', so that we can view and consider its findings, but merely screams another 'politics by fear' headline at us.
I looked on the Kings Fund web site, and can find no reference to such a report, and Simon Johnson the Telegraph hack who scribbled wrote this only refers to 'a major study', 'the document' and 'the report'.
With such wishy washy reporting crap from the Telegraph one has to assume that without any referencing of any kind this is a placement rather than a report.
So who are those who make such predictions in the Kings Fund?. Looking a little deeper, we find that our old friend Julian Le Grand is on the Kings Fund management committee. Ho Hum.
Julian Le Grand was appointed as Tony Blair's new health advisor following the move of his predecessor to a new UK arm of a US healthcare company. He was a member of the Fabian Society's commission on taxation and citizenship, and was described by Kevin Curran, the general secretary of the GMB union, in the Guardian (21 May, p15) as someone whose “background suggests he identifies more with profit than public service”..
Professor Julian Le Grand's plan for a smoking permit has rightly received a proper kicking all over Blogistan, and he wants to ban the sale of alcohol in supermarkets.
Julian Le Grand is clearly a man who wishes to impose his morals upon everyone, but when you begin to break down health care to the single common denominator of money, then you are verging on an evil that we have seen in our recent history before. That is what we should all fear.
The text reads:
“This genetically ill person will cost our people's community 60,000 marks
over his lifetime. Citizens, that is your money”.
“The
further back you look, the further forward you can see.” (Winston
Churchill)
