Police in strike action threat

A long-running pay dispute could force London police officers to demand the right to strike, a union has warned - according to the BBC.

The Metropolitan Police Federation, representing 30,000 officers in the capital, said a Government-proposed deal means "pay cuts in real terms".

Chairman Glen Smyth said other Police Federation branches around the country were also "simmering with outrage".

The Home Office said the issue would now go to arbitration or conciliation.

Mr Smyth said: "If they continue to treat us in this cavalier fashion and this offhand way, they can expect we will challenge our ability to take industrial action."

He added that the Government's stance was a "real slap in the face".

He said Home Secretary Jacqui Smith should not think police officers would "swallow the insult" of being told their pay claims would not be met because "the Government doesn't think that their professionalism, dedication and often downright bravery is worth very much".

He added that if the dispute continued police officers would consider overturning their ban on striking.

The current pay agreement, dating from 1979, grants rank-and-file police officers index-linked increases based on pay awards to other public-sector workers, in compensation for the fact that police officers are banned from going on strike.

But the official side of the Police Negotiating Board - which represents the Home Office and police chiefs - has been trying to renegotiate the agreement.

Gloucestershire: Flood costs 'could exceed £50m'

Early estimates of the cost to Gloucestershire of the recent flooding could exceed £50m, the county council has said - according to the BBC.

This includes the cost of responding to the emergency, managing the aftermath, repairs to property, infrastructure and the local economy.

Council workers have started the task of checking road surfaces, footpaths, bridges and street lighting for damage.

It is believed more than 100 sites will need significant repairs.

The cost of repairing the county's roads is estimated at £25m. The council has said the total cost could be as much as its yearly road maintenance bill.

Bridlington: Axe falls on mental health wards

A mental health ward is to close at Bridlington Hospital within weeks, and a second could close in three years - reports the BBC.

The Humber Mental Health NHS Trust said it was planning to treat more patients in their homes.

Mick Pilling, who is leading a campaign to save the hospital, said it was "another nail in the coffin, another much-needed service gone."

Last November it emerged the hospital's maternity unit is to close as the local NHS trust tackles £7m of overspending.

Hospital bosses had said mothers-to-be in the town would be encouraged to opt for home births.

Now officials at the mental health trust, which runs the threatened Waters Ward in Bridlington, said home treatment for older patients would replace in-patient services.

They said the Waters Ward would close in the autumn, with beds transferring to Castle Hill Hospital at Cottingham, near Hull.

Officials said that either the Buckrose Ward at the hospital or Bartholomew House at Goole would also close, probably within three to five years.

Mr Pilling added: "Waters Ward will close in the autumn and be taken to Castle Hill by all accounts.

The mental health trust said some patients would eventually be treated at a new facility to be built in the East Riding.

The mental health trust is part of the bigger Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust which earlier this month announced it was to axe 600 jobs - a third of its workforce - at two Yorkshire hospitals.

The trust, which runs hospitals in Scarborough and Bridlington, plans to close wards and reduce non-clinical support services to save £15m.

Union officials had said the cuts would have a "devastating" impact on patients.

The trust's chief executive, Iain McInnes, said the trust needed to work "more efficiently, with fewer positions".

Battersea: Battle to overturn "flawed" hospital closure

Wandsworth councillors are expected to meet tonight in a bid to block NHS plans to close Battersea's Bolingbroke Hospital - reports Your Local Guardian.

The council's health scrutiny committee is expected to refer the planned closure to Health Secretary Alan Johnson urging him to keep Bolingbroke open.

Referring the case to Mr Johnson would provide at least a temporary reprieve for Bolingbroke after bosses at Wandsworth Primary Care Trust and St George's Healthcare Trust decided to shut the hospital earlier this month.

Committee chairman Ian Hart said the decision to close the 104-year-old hospital was taken in the face of massive public opposition.

The council is expected to call on Mr Johnson to reverse the flawed decision by the two NHS trusts because health chiefs have not adequately responded to the deep concerns expressed by the committee.

"We will be calling on Mr Johnson to overturn this unpopular and illogical decision," Coun Hart said.

London: Hospitals fail to meet superbug targets

London hospitals are struggling to cope with deadly superbugs, despite a major hygiene drive in the NHS - reports the Evening Standard.

Figures released today by the Health Protection Agency show rising rates of the potentially fatal stomach bug Clostridium Difficile.

Almost 1,680 people contracted the bug in the first three months of this year - a rise of 14% on the previous three months.

Additionally, around 1,200 people contracted MRSA - 25% more than the target level.

The figures come only days after chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson attacked hospitals for an "unacceptable level of hygiene".

Barnet and Chase Farm NHS Hospitals Trust was issued with an improvement notice last month for serious breaches of the rules, including basic measures such as not having alcohol hand-rubs.

The highest numbers of C.Difficile cases were at Barnet and Chase Farm hospitals (Theresa Villiers MP and Joan Ryan MP), with 188 in the three months from January to March.

There were 132 cases at Whipps Cross (Harry Cohen MP), 123 cases at St George's Healthcare NHS Trust (Sadiq Kahn MP & Martin Linton MP) and 118 at Kingston Hospital (Ed Davey MP).

Other hospitals where cases of MRSA are on the increase include Newham University Hospital (Lyn Brown MP), Hillingdon Hospital (John Randall MP), and West Middlesex University Hospital (Ann Keen MP).

Many other London hospitals, while reducing the number of cases over previous years, still suffer a problem. And MPs would surely agree that even one superbug case is one too many.

So are these MPs going to vote to waste billions of pounds extra on the audit-failing EU - completely without justification - while their constituency hospital needs further investment to improve hygiene?

People are dying due to this hygiene problem. Can't the EU manage to get by on the £3.5bn a year (net) we already hand over every year? That's surely more than our fair share.

Flooding compensation

Responding to questions in the House of Commons today, Gordon Brown said all councils affected by the floods would receive 100% compensation, according to a BBC report.

He said £46m had been made available by the government in the immediate future and annual spending on flood protection would rise from £600m to £800m by 2010/11.

But is this enough? Certainly these amounts are tiny compared to the extra £2.5bn a year Gordon Brown plans to lavish on the audit-failing EU, which will take our total net EU payments to £6bn a year.

The £46m is less than 3 days worth of what we'll be paying the EU, and the extra £200m the government intends to spend on flood protection over coming years represents a little over a week's worth of what our new EU payments would be, if MPs vote to approve the EU budget deal.

What does this say about how the government prioritises preventing the terrible personal devastation we have seen over recent weeks from happening again, relative to funding the wasteful and fraud-ridden EU?

Let's not forget, auditors haven't even been able to tell us where the "majority" of the EU's spending goes for twelve years running - so no-one knows where much of the money given to the EU is in fact going.

Surely that money would be better spent on flood prevention, than wasted on the EU? Those MPs who agree will vote against the EU budget deal.

Hospital bugs 'remain a problem'

The number of cases of the superbug MRSA is falling in England, but the potentially more dangerous Clostridium difficile is thriving, according to the BBC.

A review by the Health Protection Agency showed hospital MRSA cases had fallen by 10% in the first three months of 2007 compared with a year ago.

But rates for C. difficile, which mainly strikes the elderly, rose by 2%.

Some NHS trusts complained that targets - both clinical and financial - were hindering the fight against infection.

In a separate survey carried out by the Healthcare Commission - an NHS watchdog - some 45% of the 155 trusts said time targets for treating patients in A&E were getting in the way of infection control measures.

Pressure to move patients to any available bed rather than the most appropriate bed or an isolation ward was one reason cited for the difficulties.

A further 36% of trusts said they were having problems combining investment in cleaning with financial targets, while 88% said their limited IT infrastructure "was restricting their ability to draw important lessons from incidents of infection".

The survey was carried out in May 2006, and the watchdog noted that a number of practices - particularly regarding individual staff objectives for bringing down infection - had changed.

There were 15,592 reported cases of C. difficile in patients aged 65 and over in
England in the first quarter of 2007. This represents a 2% rise when compared with the same period last year, but is 22% higher than the previous quarter.

C. difficile usually affects the elderly, and can prove fatal if antibiotic treatment fails to kill all the spores in the gut, and they take hold again before the patient's own gut bacteria have had chance to mount a resistance.

It is also very difficult to eradicate from the ward environment, which means it is easy for other patients to become infected.

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said the government had "spectacularly failed" to halt C. difficile.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley called the figures "the tip of the iceberg, because they do not include the number of infections in people aged under 65".

Hospices 'face funding struggle'

Hospices are struggling with debts as funding promised by the government has failed to materialise, reports the BBC.

More than one in four hospices is now in deficit, a study of 186 of the UK's 194 charitable hospices showed.

It comes after the government promised in its 2005 manifesto that funding for palliative care would be doubled.

But the Help the Hospices charity said charity hospice money had remained largely static. The government said funding was now being looked at.

Two thirds of the hospices in England are run by the voluntary sector, providing valuable palliative and day care support to the NHS.

The hospice movement is a unique service which has led the way in palliative care
Karen Jennings, of Unison

But the Help the Hospices study found the amount of government money hospices received as a proportion of their spending fell for the last three years.

In England, government funding now stands at 32% of the £450m expenditure on charitable hospices, having fallen from 34% in 2004 and 33% in 2005.

The rest of the funding has to come from charitable donations.

The figures also revealed the amount hospices receive varied hugely - from nothing to 62% of their spend.

Help the Hospices chief executive David Praill said: "We are asking the government to deliver Labour's election manifesto commitment to doubling the amount given for palliative care as a matter of urgency.

"Charitable hospices provide the majority of in-patient palliative care services as well as a range of day care, hospice at home, bereavement support services and training for doctors and nurses.

"We are not asking for 100% funding, but we do need the government to cover the cost of services that the NHS would otherwise have to provide.

"The donations we get from charity fundraising activities in local communities are already badly needed and cannot be stretched to cover core NHS responsibilities indefinitely as well.

"The situation will only worsen with an ageing population and more and more of us living longer with terminal illness - this issue has to be addressed now."

Unison head of health Karen Jennings said: "The hospice movement is a unique service which has led the way in palliative care.

"They receive fantastic support from many relatives who raise funds for the service, often for years after the death of a family member.

"But they cannot survive on fundraising alone."

Watford: A&E nursing jobs face axe

A nurse from Watford General Hospital has slammed plans to slash the number of staff in accident and emergency (A&E).

The nurse, who currently works in the department, claims hospital bosses have told staff that West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust will halve the number of nurses in A&E.

In a letter sent to the Watford Observer, the nurse has revealed staff in A&E are already over-worked and that when emergency services at Hemel Hempstead close, the Vicarage Road hospital will be dangerously under-staffed.

The nurse said: "I believe they are about to put patient care in A&E at a big risk.

"Anyone who has been in the department recently will know all the nursing staff are constantly running around, caring for very sick patients, giving treatments or assisting in the doctors' duties.

"To reduce the staff by this number will increase the time to be seen and to be treated and also compromise the care given to patients. Many members of staff, nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers have already said that they think patients will die because of these cut backs."

Currently every shift at Watford A&E is staffed by ten nurses during the day, and eight at night.

NHS bosses are thought to be looking to reduce this to five nurses during the day and four at night and relocate 22 nurses to other areas of the trust.

However, under a major reorganisation of health care in Hertfordshire, A&E services at Hemel Hempstead Hospital are due to be transferred to Watford, meaning tens of thousands more people will soon rely on the service.

The nurse, who has asked to remain anonymous, said staff are concerned they will not receive sufficient training if they are transferred to a new role.

A trust spokesman said a final decision on the number of nurses employed in Watford A&E has not yet been made, but did confirm that hundreds of agency staff would be lost.

The cuts are part of huge cost cutting measures, which will see the equivalent of 135 full-time nurses and midwives axed across the trust.

The move aims to save the cash trust millions of pounds.

The spokesman said nurses from A&E will not be made redundant, but will be sent to other areas of the trust.

He added that most of the terminated staff members will be agency workers.

Chief executive of the trust, David Law, said: "Our primary aim is to ensure that patient care is not compromised, while bringing the trust back into financial balance and ensuring high-quality services to people living in west Hertfordshire, in the long-term."

Bridlington & Scarborough: NHS trust announces 600 job cuts

The Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust has announced that it is to axe 600 jobs, comprising a third of its workforce, in a bid to save £10m and balance its books - the BBC reports today.

The cuts are the latest in a long series of similar actions by NHS trusts across the country, being forced when cost over-runs are not being met with extra funds from central government.

The government is finding the cash, however, to gift an extra £2.5bn a year (net) to the wasteful European Union (which already receives £3.5bn a year on average). Yet The EU hasn't been able to have the majority of its accounts approved by auditors for twelve years in a row.

Latest figures from the NHS Information Centre show that 17,000 posts have been closed in the last 12 months alone.

The North Yorkshire trust runs Scarbrough General and Bridlington District hospitals.

Unison regional officer Ray Gray has condemned the huge cuts in staff levels as a "disaster" for health services in the area.

"Job losses on this scale are completely unsustainable. It would devastate the NHS in this part of Yorkshire and have a profoundly damaging effect on the local economy", he said.

"How the trust has ended up in this dire situation is a matter of grave concern and we are seeking urgent talks with the Secretary of State for Health to find a way of saving the jobs and the health service in the Scarborough district."

Hospital turns patients away one day in two

The region's biggest hospital is declaring an overcrowding red alert and closing its doors to non-emergency patients one day in every two on average - reports The Sentinel.

The University Hospital of North Staffordshire has declared the highest state of alert, meaning it is under extreme pressure and immediate action is required, on 329 days out of 802 since April 1, 2005.

Until an alert is cleared, management cancel pre-booked operations and send patients home, ask staff to work extra hours or come in on their days off, pay for beds in the private nursing sector to free up space, and call neighbouring hospitals for help.

And the problem appears to be getting worse. While red alerts happened on one in three days last year, they rose to 38 days out of 72 between April and June 11 this year.

The figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that a red alert was declared at the Hartshill hospital on 18 consecutive days in February.

Ian Syme, co-ordinator of North Staffordshire Healthwatch, said hospitals should be running at 80 to 85 per cent capacity so there was slack in case of emergencies.

He said: "The University Hospital hasn't got the capacity to deal with the illness it is encountering.

"There has been a significant cut in staff and in the number of beds.

"But there hasn't been a significant increase in community services and they won't be up to scratch for five to 10 years. I don't know any other profession where staff are under such severe pressure so much of the time.

"The hospital trust has pledged to slash 1,000 jobs, 800 of which have already been cut. It has also axed 145 of its 1,300 beds in the past year to tackle a £15 million debt.

Southwark: Mental health clinic threatened with closure

Supporters of a mental health clinic threatened with closure fear a consultation into its future will be a sham after hearing the manager will be moved - reports ICSouthLondon.

The Felix Post Unit at the Maudsley Hospital in Denmark Hill faces the axe and a consultation is due to start in August.

But this week, campaigners learnt its manager of 11 years is to be moved to another job.

A source close to the clinic said: "She would be out by the end of the month. We all feel that they are attacking the service by stealth.

"They are taking out its very strong leader before the consultation begins."

The South London Press has been told the manager is now looking into launching a complaint through her union.

Lois Austin, from the Keep Our NHS Public campaign, said: "This consultation is going to be a sham. They are winding the clinic down so that when it comes to the consultation they can say it's not really operating and use that as an excuse to close it."

Tony Farsky, a former patient at the clinic and campaigner through the Southwark Pensioners' Action Group,said: "They are effectively closing the place, it is despicable.

"The staff there are very dedicated to their jobs and this is no way to treat them."

The South London Press put the claims to the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust which refused to deny the manager was being moved.

In a statement, it said: "We do not discuss routine, individual staffing issues with the media. However, it is not uncommon for staff to be offered secondment opportunities elsewhere within the trust."

The news comes in the same week that campaigners learnt that Simon Hughes, MP for North Southwark and Bermondsey, plans to present a petition in Parliament on cuts at the Maudsley before the end of the month.

The petition, which now has more than 5,000 signatures, calls for the new Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, to look again at the decision made by his predecessor, Patricia Hewitt, allowing the Maudsley Hospital's 24-hour emergency clinic to close.

Sheffield: Experts voice flood defence fears

Flood defence experts in England have written to the government to voice their "deep concern" about the maintenance of defences in the future - reports the BBC.

They say much more money is needed for improvements or flooding will cost the country and the economy dearly.

The letter, sent to Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, has been signed by the chairmen of all the flood defence committees in England.

In it, they say they cannot overstate the impact the recent flooding had.

They give the example of Sheffield and Rotherham, South Yorkshire, which came very close to losing all their power for an extended period.

The chairmen add that the growing intensity of extreme weather events means flooding will become more frequent and that current levels of funding are not sufficient to carry out the work that is needed.

The letter calls for more investment to manage the problem because, they say, the country has no choice but to adapt to its changing climate.

It was contained in the minutes of the meeting of the Yorks Regional Flood Defence Committee, which has been taking place in Leeds.

The Environment Agency says it will need to spend £750m a year over the next three years to protect areas threatened by floods.

The amount currently offered by the government falls short, meaning a number of projects have been put on hold.

These include a £100m scheme for Leeds, and plans to replace York's defences, which have been deemed inadequate.

The agency also estimates that it needs £150m a year over the next 10 years just to bring its existing assets up to standard.

Cleethorpes: Public meeting over ward closure

People are being given the chance to hear discussions over the planned closure of a hospital ward for elderly patients in North East Lincolnshire - reports the BBC.

Officials at the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby plan to close the C4 ward by 1 October.

They say the reason for the move is a drop in the need for beds.

Staff, the public and unions have raised concerns. A public meeting will be held at Grimsby Town Hall at 1630 BST on Wednesday.

When the closure plan was announced last month, nurse Paul Watson-Rigg told the BBC it had had a "very negative and demoralising effect on the staff".

The meeting has been organised by North East Lincolnshire Council's older people scrutiny panel.

Andrew North, chief executive of the trust which runs the hospital, will be there to talk about the proposed closure.

Stoke: What price for a life?

One of the two kidney cancer patients being denied a wonder-drug by North Staffordshire's NHS has died.

Married mother-of-one Carole Buckley had been refused Nexavar treatment on the NHS by North Staffordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT).

The 48-year-old was still waiting for the result of her appeal against the PCT's decision when she died last week.

Mrs Buckley has told The Sentinel in June: "Unless the PCT decides I can have this drug, there is nothing else for me. I find it really scary that my life is in someone else's hands."

News of Mrs Buckley's death has angered fellow kidney cancer sufferer Angelena Buxton who is also being denied Nexavar by the same PCT.

The 56-year-old is paying £3,200 a month for Nexavar herself and has launched the Need Nexavar Now campaign to try to force the PCT's hand.

Angelena, who lives in Baldwins Gate, said: "If Carole could have gone on the drug for a couple of months it might have made all the difference. She has been going all this year without treatment.

"I know the PCT only has so many funds but it should preserve the sanctity of life. That's what doctors swear in their oath but it is not being done.

"Carole was a lovely person. We had spoken lots on the phone. She was frightened but it was the only option. I'm thinking now of her family - her husband and daughter."

After being refused the drug Mrs Buckley, who lived in Scholar Green and had her GP in Kidsgrove, had started pioneering stem-cell transplant treatment at Christie's Hospital, Manchester.

Angelena said: "She was very nervous about going in when I spoke to her three weeks ago. She had made the decision that she couldn't afford Nexavar.

"She had been told it would have been better if she could have gone on Nexavar first but because she couldn't afford it and the PCT wouldn't fund it they brought it forward."

Angelena's sister Gemma Austin, aged 62, of Trentham said: "I'm devastated. I believe she has been condemned to death by the PCT. Why couldn't they have paid for the drug?

"I didn't know her personally but I know what her and her family have gone through.

"What price is there on a life? Even if it didn't suit her the PCT could have let her try."

Nexavar is licensed for use in the UK but no national guidelines for its use have been issued by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice).

How can any MPs seriously be considering gifting the EU billions more pounds a year - a 60% increase in payments - while auditors can't explain where the "majority" of the £3.5bn a year we already hand over has been going for the last twelve years, and while this kind of drug rationing in the NHS is costing lives?

People's lives clearly depend on that money. MPs shouldn't be content to vote it away to wasteful and already lavishly-funded organisations like the EU, or they can expect to pay the price for such irresponsibility come the next election.

Norfolk: Ministers warned over flood budget cuts

Ministers were last night urged to pump millions more into Norfolk's flood defences to prevent communities being swept away by water - reports the Eastern Daily Press.

Norfolk County Council is lobbying new environment secretary Hilary Benn to restore a £20m cut made to the Environment Agency's flood defence funding for the Anglian region.

This year the agency's spending on flood risk management in the region has been slashed from £99m to £79m.

Ian Monson, cabinet member for the environment and waste, has written to Mr Benn warning that the funding squeeze could seriously compromise the Agency's abilities to carry out its duties.

“We feel it will accumulate if we don't put the right resources in properly to manage our flood defences properly they could be in danger in the future,” he said.

“It is a warning. There's a definite feeling from people here in Norfolk along the coasts and river banks that things are getting worse. This is rapidly becoming a major concern.

"It's not only coastal defences, it's riverbanks, and doing the remedial work in clearing silt out of the rivers.

“We took a big knock for funding in this region and clearly we have suffered with flooding. We need to get this reinstated and put the budget back.” he said.

Last month MPs warned that swathes of lowland East Anglia could be routinely deluged because of a neglect of the region's flood defences.

It followed a hard hitting report by the National Audit Office stating that the Environment Agency was not doing enough to protect property and businesses.

North West Norfolk MP Henry Bellingham, who quizzed Mr Benn about the extra funding in Parliament, said it was vital extra cash would be found for sea defences.

“We need to make sure that the sea defences budget is increased,” he said. “Luckily in Norfolk very few of the rivers flood, but the main danger is from the sea and a lot of my constituency could well disappear.

“Defra has been hit really hard by the rural payments fiasco and the money has had to be found elsewhere in the budget. They have had a rough settlement from the government and there are good reasons to be concerned about the government's commitment to Defra and the countryside.

“Maybe these floods are a wake up call but the devil is going to be in the detail,” he added.

Steve Wheatley, the Environment Agency's flood manager for the Anglian region, said the region had lost out following a funding change which saw cash handed out based on national priorities.

“Overall it would help if there was more money for flood risk management and we do manage with a limited pot,” he said.

Are Norfolk's MPs really going to vote to reward the audit-failing EU with an extra £2.5bn a year, while their county is under threat of disappearing underwater unless there is greater investment in flood defences?

Henry Bellingham MP, at least, has confirmed that he will vote to block the EU budget deal while there are such urgent and crucial local needs for extra investment.

But what about Norfolk's other MPs? Should the worst happen, are they going to risk being seen to have taken a terrible decision with scarce public money, and to have massively betrayed their constituents' interests?

Flood-hit Hull a 'forgotten city'

Hull has become the "forgotten city" after suffering some of the worst flooding damage, the BBC reports today.

Council leader Carl Minns said it could take two years for the city to recover.

"We are the forgotten city in this disaster," said Mr Minns who has called for urgent government help for the 17,000 properties affected.

Some £18m is being earmarked for repairs to thousands of wrecked homes.

Mr Minns said: "What we have in Sheffield and Doncaster is terrible and my heart-felt sympathy goes out to those people.

"But their problems have been fairly localised, whereas ours is spread right across the city. Hull also needs help.

"We are starting to rebuild but the city won't recover for around two years.

"The Government needs to help this city with a large injection of capital, otherwise this city will not recover."

Are MPs going to vote £2.5bn away to the audit-failing EU - by approving the EU budget deal - while that money is clearly urgently needed not only to provide relief and support in areas hit by the recent terrible flooding, but also to help ensure it doesn't happen again?

Now more than ever it's time for MPs to demonstrate a high degree of responsibility with scarce public funds.

Call for improved dementia care

The NHS must urgently address failings in dementia care if it is to cope with future demands, reports the BBC.

The number of people with dementia is expected to rise by a third in the next 15 years, but the National Audit Office said it was not enough of a priority.

The report said England lagged behind other European countries over early diagnosis and access to drugs.

It likened the situation to cancer in the 1950s when patients were not told about it due to a lack of treatment.

The NAO said only a third of people with dementia are ever formally diagnosed, with many GPs failing to recognise the importance of early diagnosis.

The report said the UK was in the bottom third of European countries for giving drugs to dementia patients, while the average time taken to diagnose patients was twice as long as in some other countries.

It comes as the High Court considers a challenge by drugs companies, backed by the Alzheimer's Society, regarding the decision by the NHS to restrict the use of key Alzheimer's drugs.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which advises the NHS on what treatments to use, has said the drugs Aricept (donepezil), Exelon (rivastigmine) and Reminyl (galantamine) are not cost effective for patients in the early stages of the disease.

It has also said another drug, Ebixa (memantine) - which is licensed for use in the later stages of the disease - should not be recommended for anyone.

Judgment in the case has been reserved, with a ruling expected by early August.

Around 560,000 people in England are estimated to have dementia but, as the population ages, that figure is expected to rise to 750,000 by 2020.

The report put the cost to the NHS and social services of caring for people with dementia at at least £3.3bn a year.

But when other costs, such as carer's time are taken into account, the overall economic burden is estimated to be £14.3bn a year.

The NAO said two thirds of people with dementia live in the community, largely looked after by nearly 500,000 informal carers, who lack support from the NHS.

It also called for more specialist services to be set up.

NAO head Sir John Bourn said: "For too long dementia has not been treated as a high priority.
"Without redesign, services for people with dementia are likely to become increasingly inconsistent and unsustainable."

Neil Hunt, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, said: "We must develop health and social care services that can respond to the challenge of dementia."

And Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said she hoped the criticisms would lead to the government "getting its act together".

"Too few people are being diagnosed or being diagnosed early enough and things are only going to get worse in the years to come as the population grows older," she said.

Health Minister Ivan Lewis said dementia was "one of the greatest challenges facing our society".

He said funding had been increased and incentives set up to encourage GPs to identify dementia early.

But he added: "We know a lot more needs to be done. We have a duty to strengthen mental health services so they ensure older people and their families are treated at all times with dignity and respect."

So the government acknowledges that "a lot more needs to be done" and they "have a duty to strengthen mental health services".

Yet in reality they're choosing to instead lavish a completely unjustified extra £2.5bn a year on the EU (on top of the annual £3.5bn net we already pay) rather than take greater steps towards fulfilling that self-declared "duty".

Ivan Lewis himself, even after uttering the words above, will no doubt be among the MPs happily rewarding the EU's twelve years of audit failure with this multi-billion pound boost in funding, when he votes on the EU budget deal.

Why should we stand for such blatant hypocrisy from our MPs - and people in great need going without support - while the EU enjoys even more lavish funding?