Nursing Times reports that senior nurses across England have been questioned on what they are doing to ensure dementia care in hospitals improves.

A letter has been sent to nursing professionals across the country, potentially enveloping those in nurse manager jobs, which explained the reasoning behind the study: "[The study provides] an opportunity to look across the board at the quality of care for people with dementia, in line with our other priorities of reducing anti-psychotic prescribing, early diagnosis and dementia care."

The letter was written by David Oliver and Alistair Burns, both medical professors, and was prompted after recent statistics showed that only one in five hospitals had a structured system for raising awareness of its patients dealing with dementia, a worrying figure.

Nurses have previously spoken out at the difficulty of treating those with dementia, claiming "it doesn't come with a handbook."

That's according to Paulette Winchester-Joseph, a nursing professional who spoke to The Independent about her experience and the many issues dementia brings to both its victims and their carers: "Nurses on the ward can get worried when dementia patients are unable to eat, but I reassure them that it is usually simply that the swallowing reflex has disappeared."

Winchester-Joseph also spoke of the struggle family members have in taking care of their loved ones with dementia, meaning that they need all the help they can get from hospitals. "One of my clients stopped taking her husband to his day care centre because after several weeks of refusing to be washed, people started to comment about the smell and she felt not only embarrassed, but guilty about her not looking after him properly."

"After a couple of hours of persuasion, he finally agreed to get into the bath, and the sessions that were so vital to both of them were restored."