TELEVISION presenter Angela Rippon has launched a new drive to improve care for the North-East’s 30,000 dementia sufferers.

Ms Rippon, the first woman to present BBC national television news on a long-term basis, chaired NHS North East’s Dementia Friendly Hospitals conference, at the Radisson Blu Hotel, in Durham City, today (Wednesday, December 12).

More than 100 healthcare workers heard about moves to make hospitals better laid out for dementia sufferers and train hospital staff to treat sufferers more effectively.

Ms Rippon, an Alzheimer’s Society ambassador who cared for her mother after she was diagnosed with dementia, said: “This is a terrific, amazing scheme.

“Dementia has been in the shadows for too long. There’s been a stigma attached to it. But one in three people are touched in some way by it.

“Now dementia has been recognised as one of the most important conditions that affects us in the 21st Century. We’re on the right track. Year by year, it’s getting better.”

Earlier this year, Prime Minister David Cameron launched a challenge to improve dementia diagnosis, care and research. In October, the Dementia Action Alliance called for better care for people with dementia in acute hospitals.

Teresa French, deputy chief nurse at NHS North East, said: “This event is about responding to the Prime Minister’s challenge in our region’s hospitals, where about 25 per cent of beds are occupied by people with dementia.”

It is hoped every North-East hospital will commit to becoming dementia friendly by March.