Britain will face a catastrophic burden if the threat of dementia is left unchecked, the Prince of Wales warned today.

The Prince welcomed work by British scientists in battling the condition and suggested that rapid advances in expertise were vital to stave off the disastrous economic and social repercussions of the growing incidence of dementia.

In his written address to leading Alzheimer’s scientists, the Prince, who is currently on a tour of South America with the Duchess of Cornwall, praised the mission to “lift the shroud of mystery” surrounding the condition.

“Sadly, dementia will have an even greater impact as, in the future, the risk of dementia increases as people live longer, and the emotional, social and economic burden we all will face if this threat is left unchecked will be catastrophic,” he wrote.

“I thoroughly commend the work of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, and the scientists it funds, in our common battle against the bleak outlook posed by dementia.

“By funding research into the disease, the charity is offering hope now and for the future. A cure remains the ultimate target for research, but steps forward with diagnosis, effective treatments and a better knowledge of how our ways of life affect the risk of dementia will be important.”

His remarks were made in a statement to more than 200 leading scientists gathering this week for the Alzheimer’s Research Trust 10th annual conference at the Royal Institution in London.

The trust said there were currently 700,000 people living in the UK with dementia, the most common form of which is Alzheimer’s. That number is expected to double within 30 years.

Dementia already costs the UK economy £17 billion a year, more than cancer, heart disease and stroke combined, according to the trust.

The Prince’s intervention comes as Laing and Buisson, health and social care analysts, said that training for staff in care homes was “fragmented and ad-hoc” with a third of homes failing to provide staff with specialist instruction for dementia patients.

Neil Hunt, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Society, said the findings were a “sad indictment of the current state of dementia care”.

“In less than 15 years there will be a million people living with dementia; we need to gear the whole of the care home sector to delivering good dementia care,” he said.

Explore Health News

• Swine flu

Times Recommends

• Times Christmas appeal: Letter from the Editor
• Conferences — what a waste of money
• Schools supremo learns a painful lesson