The UK lags behind its international peers for dementia, cancer and mental health care, according to a new report.

The IPPR report says the UK could have averted around 240,000 deaths if it had matched the avoidable mortality rates of its European neighbours.

Harry Quilter-Pinner, IPPR director of research and engagement, said: “At their best, health and care services can save lives, transform wellbeing, and support prosperity. But after a decade of austerity, low investment and a pandemic, today’s status quo is not meeting the demands of the 21st century. 

“If we continue down this path, we risk a status quo of extortionate inadequacy – where we pay ever increasing sums for health and care services that are, at best, mediocre. Our new research shows we can get better by spending better.” 

The report shows dementia mortality is far higher in the UK than in Western European, Nordic and Anglophone nations.

Fiona Carragher, director of Research and Influencing, Alzheimer’s Society, commented: “One in three people born today will go on to develop dementia, and this report makes plain the serious consequences of failing to properly invest in health and social care. If the UK had matched the dementia mortality rates of our European counterparts, 180,000 people might not have died of dementia between 2010 and 2020.”

The study reveals requests for adult social care support have risen 10% since 2016, but the number receiving local authority support has declined 4%.

It lays out a 10-point plan for health and social care reform, including a social care guarantee with personal care made free, on a par with the NHS, ending the unfairness of diagnoses like dementia leading to avoidable suffering and patients being forced to bear potentially catastrophic costs.

The report also calls for a new deal for health and care workers, including all care workers being paid the real living wage, their student loan debts cancelled, greater control over their working time and a greater voice in planning services, alongside the professionalisation of care work with a new Royal College of Social Care. In addition, the report calls for a five-year commitment to increase England’s health and social care budget by 3.6% per year.

Carragher added: “We hugely welcome the IPPR report’s pragmatic and constructive recommendations on care reform, from a social care guarantee that will offer free personal care and drive up the quality of providers through ethical commissioning, to a new deal for health and care workers that would see all care workers paid the real living wage and provided with appropriate training and support for their roles. Alzheimer’s Society has long called for social care workforce reform to tackle record vacancies and ensure we have a workforce fit for the future that can deliver the high-quality, personalised care people living with dementia need and deserve.”

Michael Chard, assistant chief officer at the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, said: “The report … adds to the wide consensus that to meet the challenges facing our health and social care sector, we need a skilled and valued workforce. Recognising social care as a profession, improving working conditions and paying people fairly, at least equal to similar roles in the NHS, would be a good start. Only this way will we start to tackle the recruitment crisis which meant half a million hours of home care were unable to be delivered across England due to lack of social care staff.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are investing up to £14.1 billion to improve services and cut waiting lists, with a focus on prevention to help people live longer, healthier lives and reduce pressure on the NHS.

“Our Major Conditions Strategy will look at the prevention and management of conditions that are responsible for the highest proportion of ill health in England. We’re also improving the nation’s health with the introduction of calorie labelling, a £40 million pilot to give eligible patients access to effective obesity drugs, and helping a million smokers across England quit by giving them a free vaping starter kit.

“Harnessing technology and artificial intelligence to improve services for patients is a priority and we are giving NHS patients greater choice over where they are treated at the point of referral, including in the independent sector.”