£50m dementia care fund

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has awarded more than £50m to hospitals and care homes designed to meet the needs of dementia patients.

The pioneering experiment includes colour coding food and drink utensils and toilets to make it easier for dementia patients to find their way around.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said hospitals needed to treat people with dementia with "dignity and respect".

ITV News' Science and Medical Editor Lawrence McGinty reports:

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said that; "We need to make sure that wherever they are [those diagnosed with dementia] we are treating them with dignity and respect."

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Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital is one of those that will receive the funding and will it for a new project to support the hospital's existing care provision for dementia patients.

Currently, this features a specially designed ward environment with colour-coded bays and symbols to help patients remember their way back to their bed and using blue wristbands for dementia patients so staff can easily identify them.

More than 100 hospitals and care homes across England have been awarded a share of a £50m fund to create pioneering care environments designed with the needs of people with dementia in mind.

The projects will form part of the first national pilot to showcase the best examples of dementia-friendly environments across England, to build evidence around the type of physical changes that have the most benefit for dementia patients.