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Widespread Support for Carers of Dementia Patients to Gain Same Visiting Rights as Parents of Sick Children

22/09/2015

John’s campaign has been active since Dr John Gerard’s death in November 2014. According to the website set up in Dr Gerard’s name: “John Gerrard went into hospital strong, mobile, smiling, able to tell stories about his past, to work in his garden and help with things round the house. He was able to feed himself, to go the lavatory, to keep clean, to have a good kind of daily life.

He came out skeletal, incontinent, immobile, incoherent. He required 24-hour care and barely knew those around him. He wore a nappy, could not stand up or walk, could not lift a mug to his mouth or put words into a sentence. 
His family feel certain that if he had not lain for five weeks without people he knew to tend and comfort him, he would not have descended into such a state of incapacity. The individual nurses and doctors were kind, conscientious, respectful, but they couldn’t sit and talk to him, read to him, make sure he ate, keep him attached to the world.”

Thus the demise of Dr Gerard started a hard fought campaign to allow carers of dementia suffers to have unlimited access as do parents of sick children. The fact that Dr Gerard is only one of thousands of dementia sufferers who met the same fate meant that families asked for the chance, not the obligation to be with their loved one at any time.

The positive news for the campaign is that over 100 hospitals have already signed up. With 1 in 3 hospital beds occupied by dementia sufferers and the NHS struggling to cope, extra care given from the outside will come as a welcome relief. Whilst there is no imperative for the carer to visit, John’s law argues that there is a moral right to be able to see the patient at any time.

Nicci Gerard, the daughter of John, launched her campaign in the Observer  and said: “John’s Campaign is single-issue, but it is deeply rooted in the movement for more compassionate and humane care.

 “There is no law that says a carer should be able to accompany their loved ones while in hospital. There is no duty for a carer to do so – they are often in great need of respite. But there is a moral right that is increasingly being recognised. In these pioneering 100 hospitals, carers will now be made welcome.

“They might be given a carers’ passport; in some wards, they might be given tea, or even a reclining chair or bed. But the decisive criterion is that they have access at all times.”

According to Scotland’s chief nursing officer, Fiona McQueen, the NHS in Scotland already has an open door policy for relatives of all dementia sufferers. However, despite the progress, Ms. Gerard acknowledged that there was still a lot of work to do to get every hospital in the country on board. She expressed the hope that this will be achieved by November 2016, two years on from her father’s death.
 

Written By:

Daniel James
www.danieljamesbio.com
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