brain 180More than £300 million is to be spent by the government on research into dementia, the Prime Minister has announced.

David Cameron said an international dementia institute would be established in England over the next 5 years in a bid to make the UK a world leader for research and medical trials.

Some 1.3 million NHS workers will also receive additional training in how to care for the approximately 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK – a number expected to hit a million within the next 10 years. The NHS workers receiving extra training on how to provide best standards of care for people with dementia will range from surgeons to hospital porters, a government spokesperson added.

The government said a separate multimillion-pound fund would be launched within weeks to help establish an international investment scheme to discover new drugs and treatments that could slow the onset of dementia, or even deliver a cure, by 2025.

Announcing the funding after a visit to High Wycombe to meet people with dementia and dementia friends, the Prime Minister said: "What this announcement is about is a very simple but bold ambition, and that is to make the United Kingdom the best place on the planet in terms of researching into dementia, in terms of diagnosing people with dementia and then in terms of treating, helping and caring for them."

The government hopes the global fund will bring together investment from the private, public and philanthropic sectors under a single scheme to pay for research projects into the disease.

There are also plans to give three million more "dementia friends" training in how to support those with the condition.

Faster assessments by GPs are also included in the prime minister's challenge on dementia 2020 plans. Cameron first launched the dementia challenge for England in March 2012, building on the previous government's National Dementia Strategy.