NHS Atlas of Variation shows regional treatment inequality

Unwarranted inequalities in patient treatment across England is revealed in the 2011 NHS Atlas of Variation in Healthcare. In North Lancashire for example, anti-dementia drugs were prescribed 25 times as many treatments and tablets to help “temporarily improve or stabilise symptoms” than in Kent. This is not to say North Lancashire patients have been over prescribed. The report suggests variation is as much to do with GPs’ lack of awareness of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s.