Primary care and memory services are both working to deliver services in extraordinarily challenging times. An initial webinar looked at the experiences of memory clinics, their capability for receiving referrals and undertaking assessments, the tools and tests available for making a diagnosis and the management of risk.
This subsequent webinar was an opportunity to acknowledge that we need to work as part of a wider system and to understand and explore the interface with primary care. There are new opportunities for the way that we manage care across multiple pathways.
Infection control is crucial to keep patients and staff safe. Patients in Memory Clinics (and their carers) are likely to be at relatively at high risk from Covid-19 typically being older and likely to have comorbidities. Social distancing will remain for some time, and we are likely to have continued reduction in face-to-face contact, so need to make sure that whenever contact occurs it is useful and maximises the opportunity to detect cognitive difficulty, rapidly assess this, and pass information on.
Published: July 2020