DEMENTIA costs Bradford's economy £200 million a year, more than heart disease and cancer combined, new figures show.

And this cost is set to rise, with health bosses expecting an extra 700 cases over the next seven years, and each dementia patient on average costing the economy more than £26,000 a year.

Bunny McCullough, public health intelligence analyst at Bradford Council, said this "adds up to a hefty budget".

Speaking at an event at City Hall to announce the district's new five-year 'dementia strategy' yesterday, she said the number of dementia cases was set to rise as people were living longer.

She said: "It is therefore one of the greatest, if not the greatest, challenge faced by health and social care at this time."

But she said groundbreaking new research being carried out in Bradford would help them ensure budgets were being spent in the best possible way.

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The research is being done by the London School of Economics, Oxford University and the University of Bradford, and aims to make sure dementia services in the Bradford district were providing the best possible value-for-money.

The five-year research project, being funded by the Health Foundation, aims to measure the cost-effectiveness of every £1 spent on health, social care and support services for those with the condition.

Miss McCullough said the academics would be investigating "the services we provide to the community, looking for how we can improve these services and best deliver what patients really need".

She said patients and their carers would be involved in this research from the outset, and that as soon as the researchers knew which services were performing better than others, changes would be made.

She said: "We would hope very much to make changes as soon as we robustly can."

The event heard there were currently an estimated 5,000 people with dementia in the district, with 2,000 of these being undiagnosed.

And one of the main areas which the strategy will focus on is making sure people with dementia can lead lives which are as full and active as possible.

The five main aims are to:

- Enable people to live well with dementia;

- Keep them in their homes for longer;

- Provide high-quality end-of-life care;

- Have a greater focus on dementia in care homes, and

- Increase awareness of how healthy lifestyles can help prevent dementia.

Paul Smithson, services manager for the Alzheimer's Society in the Bradford district, welcomed the new five-year strategy.

He said Bradford was already recognised for its excellent work in creating dementia-friendly communities.

He said: "I think there has been a lot of very good work going on in Bradford. To pull this together, I think is excellent."