BackgroundDementia is a global public health challenge, the significant consequences of which are recognised in global and national health policies. Despite approaches to improve the implementation of evidence-based dementia care in primary care and the inclusion of indicators for dementia in the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF), there is consistent evidence that people with dementia and their family carers lack access to care which meets their needs.AimThis study aims to explore current practice regarding the annual dementia review in primary care by investigating: 1) what ‘should’ be happening in annual dementia reviews; 2) how dementia reviews are delivered in a sample of general practices; 3) the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of evidence-based care in dementia reviews; and 4) the experience of these reviews from the perspectives of people with dementia and their informal carer(s).MethodQualitative methods will be used. In the first stage, semi-structured interviews with national and regional experts in dementia policy and healthcare will be used to explore what ‘should’ be happening in an annual dementia review. In the second stage, interviews with primary healthcare team members will explore how annual dementia reviews are delivered in a sample of practices in North East England. Interviews with people with dementia and their carers will then be used to explore how reviews are experienced by service users. Thematic analysis will be used to analyse data.ResultsKey themes from the first stage will be presented and their implications in primary care discussed.ConclusionThe research plan for the second stage will be presented.