Prime Minister Andy Burnham is being urged to overhaul dementia care with a mandatory 18-week waiting-time target, as a new report warns that current services are “stuck in the last century”.
The call for a “cancer-style” revolution in dementia treatment comes just days after the Prime Minister returned to work following the death of his father, Roy Burnham, who had lived with Alzheimer’s disease. The Alzheimer’s Society and The King’s Fund published a joint report on 17 September 2026, arguing that the UK must adopt the same urgency for dementia as it does for other life-limiting conditions.
Professor Sir Mike Richards, the UK’s former national cancer director, has formally backed the proposal for a mandatory 18-week referral-to-treatment target. Supporters of the move say it would mirror existing NHS standards for cancer and physical health, providing a clear deadline for specialists to see and treat patients after an initial GP referral.
Diagnosis delays and “stagnant” care
The report highlights a significant gap between current reality and the proposed targets. On average, people living with dementia in the UK wait 3.5 years from the onset of their first symptoms to receiving a formal diagnosis. In some regions, wait times for specialist memory clinics now exceed two years.
According to the Alzheimer’s Society, one in three people living with the condition in the UK do not have a formal diagnosis at all. National statistics for England show that the diagnosis rate stood at 66.2% in June 2026, a slight drop from 66.3% recorded in March, indicating that progress in identifying the condition has stalled.
The joint report suggests that the current system is failing patients at every stage, from initial suspicion of memory loss through to end-of-life care. It argues that without a “blueprint” for reform similar to the one used to improve cancer outcomes in the early 2000s, dementia patients will continue to face a “postcode lottery” of service quality.
National “dementia tsar” planned
Social Care Minister Alison McGovern welcomed the findings, acknowledging that dementia care has been “neglected for far too long”. She confirmed that the government intends to appoint a national “dementia tsar” to oversee improvements across the NHS and social care sectors.
The Department of Health and Social Care is expected to publish a modern service framework for dementia by the end of 2026. This framework is intended to set out how Integrated Care Boards will be held accountable for meeting diagnosis targets and improving the quality of post-diagnostic support.
While the government has not yet committed to the specific 18-week target or the funding required to achieve it, the Prime Minister’s personal experience with his father’s illness is expected to place the issue high on the autumn legislative agenda. Mr Burnham returned to Downing Street on 16 September 2026, and is understood to be prioritising the upcoming service framework as part of a wider NHS reform package.