Dementia patients and their families are suffering unnecessarily because of a lack of suitable end-of-life care, according to a leading charity.

Marie Curie said that although dementia is regarded as a terminal illness, less than a fifth of patients with the condition receive palliative care before they die.

Some receive inadequate pain relief, or are unable to contribute to decisions about their care, and many care homes are effectively acting as hospices, without being designed to do so, and without suitable specialist staff according to a report Living and Dying with Dementia in Scotland, published by the charity.

The research comes after leading dementia expert Professor June Andrews, of the University of Stirling, warned that hospital wards 'chew up' dementia patients, often leaving them hungry, thirsty, or in pain.

Marie Curie said that unlike with other conditions, it is often unclear when care of a dementia patent moves from active 'treatment' to more palliative. Confusion and memory loss can be dismissed as normal signs of ageing, the report says, while there is a shortage of dementia care specialists working in palliative care.

For these and other reasons, too few people with dementia get appropriate end of life care and those who do do not get it soon enough.

The report says patients might not get end of life care that respects their wishes, including where they would prefer to die if possible, and their religious or cultural preferences. They may receive insufficient pain relief, while families and carers should get bereavement support.

However recent studies suggest less than 20 per cent of people diagnosed with dementia receive palliative care of any type, compared with 75 per cent of those with cancer.

Hospices are traditionally better equipped to care for people with cancer or chronic lung complaints, while deaths caused partly by dementia are often recorded as being due to a different cause, further masking the need for end of life care for dementia patients.

Marie Curie said the result was unnecessary distress for patients and their loved ones. Communicating that they are in pain can be difficult for people with dementia and as a result they are more likely to find that their pain is not well managed than people with other terminal conditions.

The charity is calling for the Scottish Government to ensure all those who might benefit from palliative care get it, and make end of life care a core part of the national dementia strategy. It says the government should ensure there is robust data on the end of life care provided to people with dementia.

Richard Meade, head of policy and public affairs for Marie Curie in Scotland said: "People dying with dementia have very specific and different need s to those with other conditions such as cancer. The Scottish Government and its partners have made important progress with the first two dementia strategies but there remain a number of barriers that are preventing patients from getting the support that they need. Ensuring that all people at the end of life that need palliative care get it, regardless of their diagnosis, must be a priority.

"Unfortunately we cannot see a clear picture of what end of life care looks like for someone with dementia as there is not readily available national or local data. We urge the Scottish Government to collect and publish robust data to monitor and improve care."

Professor June Andrews said improving the perception of care homes, partly by improving the qualifications of people who work there, could tackle many public concerns about the quality of care. "The positive reputation of hospices could be transferred to care homes, which are effectively hospices for people with dementia already, but not if care homes continue to be seen as work that can largely be done by casual and untrained people."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "It is important that everyone in Scotland with dementia receives safe, effective care at all stages of the illness and in all care settings - at home, in hospital and in residential care.

"Our ambition is that everyone should be able to expect high quality palliative and end of life care regardless of their underlying condition, seven days a week 24 hours a day, and we are already working closely with key organisations, such as Marie Curie, to drive forward this work."

She added that a strategic framework for action in palliative and end of life care is due to be published this spring, It is also committed to the identifying people with palliative care needs within its overall strategy.