Neuroprogressive and Dementia Research Network takes to UK airwaves to discuss speed of diagnosis
The NHS Research Scotland (NRS) Neuroprogressive and Dementia Research Network has been taking to UK airwaves to voice views on a campaign around new targets for speed of diagnosis
Network Champion, Dr Tom Russ — Reader in Old Age Psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh and Consultant Psychiatrist at NHS Lothian, working in the memory clinic and two specialist dementia units — appeared on three BBC radio shows to discuss a recent Alzheimer’s Society statement.
The Society is campaigning for an 18-week referral-to-diagnosis target for dementia, alongside new national diagnosis rate targets and biomarker-supported diagnostic accuracy.
Almost half of people with dementia wait more than six months for a diagnosis, the charity insists.
Dr Russ spoke on BBC Radio Scotland’s Lunchtime Live, the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4, and on BBC Radio Sheffield.
Discussing challenges around waiting times for diagnosis with Lunchtime Live, Tom said: “I think there are a number of factors. So, one is that more people are affected by dementia than ever. Not because it’s getting more common — in fact, probably a smaller proportion of older adults are affected — but because there are more older adults, because there are more people with dementia around now than there were a decade ago.
“Many services do not have the full complement of staff. There are unfilled posts for nurses, doctors, occupational therapists who are required to run these services, and also, it’s just fair to say that many services are still feeling the after-effects of COVID which had a major impact on them.”
Dr Russ added that “in many clinics, my own included”, innovation could help to support the growing number of dementia patients they are seeing.
He said: “We need innovation, we need to do things differently, so we need to think about the different care pathways built around the person with dementia and their families at the centre of them.
“We need to think about innovative approaches like having a network of advanced nurses across the country to work with other professionals to diagnose dementia, as works in other conditions.
“We need to explore how we could use things like biological markers to help us make more accurate and robust diagnoses like blood tests for dementia which are soon going to be here. We use them in research contexts in Edinburgh and other parts of Scotland, but we could start to use them more widely.”
Asked what difference he thought that could make, Dr Russ replied: “I think that will make a huge difference because we will be able to, in the context of wider reforms, make a more robust diagnosis and so, while their memory’s not perfect but it’s not too bad, it will also allow us to be more confident in saying, ‘We think this is unlikely to get worse’, so I think they will have a great impact.”
Dr Russ spoke proudly of Scotland’s world leading approach to dementia care, including Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) initiatives which engage with the experiences of people facing the condition themselves or caring for a family member or friend, helping to inform better research.
“Scotland in many respects in terms of dementia in all its dimensions, leads the world in many ways, in particular in the involvement of people with lived experience of dementia in policy and in research,” he said
“I work with NHS Research Scotland and our lived experience group, Partners in Research, is looked to by all the countries in the world for the innovative work that we do, but I think we do need to think about innovation and doing things differently as I said.”
Publication date: 21st September 2026
