EMERGENCY admissions to hospital of people with dementia in the South West has increased by 42 percent, research reveals.

Data has now revealed that England saw 379,000 admissions, up by almost 100,000.

Within that number includes Bournemouth, which has seen a rise of 16 percent of people with dementia admitted to hospital for an emergency.

In 2012 to 2013, 1,120 people with dementia in Bournemouth were sent to hospital for emergency admissions, but this rose to 1,305 between 2017 and 2018.

Alzheimer’s Society charity, which supports people with dementia and their carers, have since said they blame much of the rise on the scarcity of appropriate care support, and the small amount of care home places able to provide specialist dementia care.

The number of people with dementia who end up stranded in hospital for up to a year after an emergency admission in England also rose by six percent, with the most recent figures showing 40,000 people with dementia are stuck there for longer than a month.

As a result, Alzheimer’s Society’s South West head of region Marion Child has warned that it is the stark reality of many people with dementia, who have been left to fall through the cracks in the "broken social care system".

She said: “People with dementia are all too often being dumped in hospital and left there for long stays. Many are only admitted because there’s no social care support to keep them safe at home. They are commonly spending more than twice as long in hospital as needed, confused and scared.

"This costs the NHS millions of pounds for the want of properly funded social care. The estimated 850,000 people with dementia and their families across the UK heard the Prime Minister’s promise to fix social care. They expect action.”

The charity is today demanding £8 billion per year to be allocated to them in the spring budget, and for cross-party talks to begin immediately in order for agreement to be reached for free universal care.

Alzheimer's Society also want to be funded in the same way as schools and for the NHS to give people with dementia "dignity, security and fundamental care".