NHS England collect and publish data about people with dementia at each GP practice in England, to enable NHS GPs and commissioners to make informed choices about how to plan their dementia services around patients’ needs.
The publication includes the rate of dementia diagnosis. As not everyone with dementia has a formal diagnosis, this statistic compares the number of people thought to have dementia with the number of people diagnosed with dementia, aged 65 and over. Where current monthly data for a GP practice is unavailable, the most recent data available are used (up to a maximum of 6 months).
Prior to October 2022, dementia data were collected via the dementia data core contract service and published as the "Recorded Dementia Diagnoses" series.
The "Primary Care Dementia Data" publication series supersedes the "Recorded Dementia Diagnoses" series. Data for the period April 2022 – October 2022 were collected under both services, but the data are not comparable. This is due to the retrospective application of codes to patient records and changes in patient registration, as well as differences in coverage and the specification of several the counts.
In September 2023 five new data items have been added to this publication series: Recorded dementia diagnosis before the age of 65; patients newly diagnosed with dementia; recorded dementia diagnosis with one or more comorbidities; recorded dementia diagnosis with a record of receiving palliative care and mild cognitive impairment without a recorded dementia diagnosis.
This data is available in an excel table and as CSVs with monthly data from 1 April 2023 onwards.
Refer to the ‘Related Links’ for the supporting information page where details on these changes can be found.
