People with dementia stay seven times longer than others in acute care, research has found.

A new report by University College London (UCL), supported by the Geller Commission, Dementia UK and the Alzheimer’s Society, has revealed that one in six beds across UK hospitals are occupied by a person with dementia.

The report, titled ‘Breaking the cycle of hospital admissions in people with dementia’, found that the number is expected to rise to one in four by 2040, with dementia patients facing a 42% increased risk of acute care admission and as much as a 35% increased risk of readmission.

Among the reasons for people being kept in hospital unnecessarily, the research lists delayed discharges, insufficient communication between NHS staff, and hospital environments being unfit for people with dementia.

According to the research, unnecessarily long hospital stays have serious consequences for dementia patients, 45.8% of which were found to develop delirium in hospital, with a further 90% of families highlighting that hospitals are ‘frightening and cause confusion’.

Furthermore, the analysis based on 1.48 million participants and 77 unique papers found that over 100 hours of unpaid work is being completed by families weekly – presenting a ‘great cost to their mental health and careers’.

It also revealed that costs of £328m per year are incurred by the taxpayer due to delayed discharges, while long stays are causing difficulties for frontline workers who struggle to provide care with limited resources.

As part of its recommended interventions, the report promotes the use of integrated multidisciplinary teams as the standard in dementia care. Additionally, it calls for the elevation of the roles of pharmacists in hospitals and says that advance care planning should be a ‘cornerstone of dementia care’.

The report’s lead author, Professor Andrew Sommerlad (UCL Psychiatry), said: ‘Despite public and political perception, these dementia-related failings in the UK health and care system are not intractable. The research clearly shows how important community-centric approaches are to reducing hospitalisations and minimising long stays, yet the NHS is not implementing them.

‘With one in three people over 90 expected to have dementia, it has never been more important to redirect resources to evidence-based care and improve communication to ensure families, hospital staff and carers are working as one joined-up team.’

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson commented: ‘Dementia is a cruel illness, and too many people living with the condition are left stranded in hospital when they would be better cared for in their community. We are working to turn this around, by joining up NHS and social care through integrated neighbourhood teams and backing adult social care with a funding boost worth over £4.6bn so more people can get the care they need out of hospital.’

They highlighted the plans to appoint a Dementia Tsar later this year, as well as the Prime Minister’s acceleration of Baroness Casey's final report timeline to enable ‘rapid progress on the rest of the reform agenda’.