My father, like the Prime Minister’s, had Alzheimers and my family - my mother in particular - battled the adult social care system. Anyone who’s been through will understand how upsetting it is. One of the most shocking moments was when - on being discharged from hospital after breaking his hip as a result of vascular dementia, and because of his Alzheimer’s he would never walk again (an uber fit man) - the discharge manager openly debated in the discharge meeting in front of my mum (then in her 80s), the amount of time he had left to live, in an argument over whether his local authority or the NHS should fund his care.
Now my mum is 94 and the lack of care available from Surrey County Council last year meant after a fall and attending A&E, she ‘bed-blocked’ for a week after being medically discharged - one of thousands who are jamming up hospitals because there is no adequate care provision. When it was finally in place it was so poor she ended up with a UTI and sepsis. Admitted to hospital again, this time for 6 weeks - costing her personally and the NHS £££ thousands. Again, when she came out of hospital, the care was agency care and abysmal - delaying her recovery and at times putting her health at serious risk.
She is well again now, after a six month woeful experience of the gaps in our system. Politics and the state have failed our people by not addressing this. Like my leader,
@EdwardJDavey I want to work with the PM, constructively to fix it. We’ve been calling for urgency on this for years. All power to Andy Burnham for prioritising it - now he and we must. And I’ll be holding him to account to fix it for good.
@LibDems