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Dementia DES will result in widespread misdiagnosis, expert claims

Many patients will be misdiagnosed with dementia as a direct result of the controversial case finding DES, warns the GP expert who led a campaign against its introduction.

Dr Martin Brunet, a GP in Surrey and programme director for the Guildford GP VTS, said newly published evidence suggests that widespread GP using of dementia screening tools will result in 23 patients being wrongly identified with possible dementia for every four patients correctly identified with the condition.

‘It is very likely that the DES will cause lots of people without dementia to be incorrectly diagnosed with it,’ he said.

Dr Brunet was addressing delegates at yesterday’s Pulse Mental Health Forum in London.

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