Thousands of patients with dementia needed an emergency admission to hospital in Cornwall last year, data reveals.

Charity the Alzheimer's Society said the coronavirus outbreak is exacerbating a "dire lack of appropriate community support" for sufferers, and warned hospitals may not be able to provide the care people need.

Dementia UK meanwhile called for those with dementia and their carers to be added to the Government’s list of vulnerable people who should be shielded from the virus.

NHS England figures show there were 3,455 emergency hospital admissions in the NHS Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group area for people with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease in 2018-19.

This was a five per cent decrease on the year before, however. Over the past five years there have been a total of 16,833 emergency admissions.

Across England, 361,000 emergency hospital admissions were recorded last year – the fourth successive annual increase – which the Alzheimer's Society said was a symptom of the "dire lack of appropriate community support".

Kathryn Smith, chief operating officer, said: "The current pandemic is making this care crisis even worse as care homes suffer from staff shortages and outbreaks of the virus, and people with dementia and their families and carers struggle with the impact of social isolation guidance.

"These figures show just how important emergency care is for people with dementia but with the current added pressures our fear is that hospitals just won't be able to provide the care people need."

Dementia UK said emergency admissions are usually the result of incidents which could have been prevented, such as trips and falls in the house, dehydration or infection.

The charity says it can be difficult to explain to someone with dementia why they should wash their hands more frequently, or why you are trying to avoid touching them to adhere to social distancing advice.

Paul Edwards, director of clinical services for Dementia UK, said: “These are challenging times and for people with dementia, we need to make sure that their need for support is recognised.”

Around 1.5 million people in the UK have been advised to shield themselves away for a period of 12 weeks and placed on a government list, which marks them out as extremely vulnerable from the disease.

Mr Edwards added: “We also need to be thinking in the longer-term, which is why we see the inclusion of people with dementia and their carers on a list of vulnerable people as so important.

“This will go a long way to improving access to appropriate community support to mitigate against hospital admissions, and ultimately allow them to live as well as possible with the condition.”

Separate figures from NHS England also show 7,258 dementia sufferers died in Kernow between 2011-18, with the disease classified as either an underlying or contributory cause.

In addition, around 140 people in the area suffer from early onset dementia – those under the age of 65.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “Public safety, and making sure people with dementia, society’s most vulnerable and those most at risk from the virus continue to get the support they need throughout this period is the Government’s top priority.

“We are working hard to understand the challenges that different groups face as a result of Covid-19 and helping them to access the help they need, which includes signposting them to relevant local and voluntary services."