A DOCTOR who gave dementia patients satellite tracking systems claims the idea could save lives.

Dr Rupert McShane has spent the last two years working on trials which saw 20 dementia patients carry matchbox-sized Global Positioning System devices with them. The devices enabled their carers to check their locations on a computer.

Some carers reported the devices gave them a sense of reassurance and gave the people they cared for increased freedom.

But Dr McShane admitted the experiment had proved the system was not suitable for everyone, as one patient was hospitalised after he went missing for two days because his device’s battery was not fully charged.

The consultant in old age psychiatry said: “It can certainly help some people — it can save lives, but it is not ideal for everybody.

“I think we showed it is not a panacea — there are patients for whom it wouldn’t be suitable because the carers have trouble making sure it is on the patient all the time, or that it is charged up, or there is no-one to look for the patient if they got lost.

“We had one patient who was being found fairly regularly but then one day it wasn’t fully charged so he was out for 48 hours.

“The patient ended up in hospital and after that the principal carer didn’t let them out of the house.”

Sue Fulford-Dobson, whose partner Ian took part in the trial, said it was difficult to persuade him to carry the tracker with him at first.

She added: “I wouldn't say he was happy, but provided I put it in his pouch every morning he would leave it there, which was all he had to do.

“At least it meant that if he vanished, even if I couldn’t find him, it helps the police to find him.”

Dr McShane, who ran the trial for the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Trust, said about 700,000 people suffer from dementia in the UK.

Of those, about 40 per cent got lost at some point during their illness, and 15 per cent of admissions to care homes were made because of issues with wandering, he said.

The average age of the patients in the trial was 67, with the length of the trial changing depending on the patient.

Dr McShane said: “The device is most suitable for people who are very mobile, particularly younger people in their 50s, 60s and early 70s, who suffer from dementia.”

Mike Sammons, from Marston, Oxford, whose 80-year-old wife suffers from dementia, said: “I think it is a reasonably good idea. It would allow people who are in the first stages of dementia to be kept safer.

“I have heard stories about people going off and getting totally lost. I think it is a big worry to carers whose partners are able to wander.”

Dr McShane said he would now apply for more funding to continue his research.

ghamilton@oxfordmail.co.uk