Valerie tables EDM on John’s Campaign: visiting rights for dementia patients in hospital

Valerie Vaz, Member of Parliament for Walsall South, has tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM) supporting John’s Campaign. This campaign was started by Nicci Gerrard and is campaigning for the right for family representatives to stay with relatives who suffer from dementia when they are in hospital.

Valerie Vaz MP said:

“Nicci Gerrard, the daughter of Dr John Gerrard, started this campaign and wrote an article in the Observer on Sunday 30 November 2014 about her experience with her father who suffered from Alzheimers. In support of Nicci and her friends who have gone through similar situations, I tabled an EDM to draw attention to John’s Campaign. The aim of the campaign is to extend to family representatives of patients who have dementia, the same rights as parents who have children in hospital. Parents are encouraged to spend as much time as they can in the hospital with their children.”

“EDMs are formal motions submitted for debate in the House of Commons and allow other MPs to show their support for the same causes. I’m pleased that this EDM has already received support from 21 MPs in its first two days.”

“People who have relatives who suffer from dementia have to comply with visiting hours which means restricting the amount of time they can spend with the patient. It is important to provide a continuation of the patients’ normal life, such as talking and reading to them, when they are in hospital. Dementia patients can struggle to understand and communicate with strangers in unusual surroundings. John’s Campaign aims to bring about a change in visiting rights so others can support family members with dementia when they are in hospital.”

Nicci Gerrard’s article ‘My father entered hospital articulate and able. He came out a broken man’ in the Observer on Sunday 30 November 2014 is available here: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/29/nicci-gerrard-father-dementia-hospital-care-elderly

Valerie Vaz MP’s Early Day Motion 586: John’s Campaign and the Right to Stay with Dementia Patients in Hospital:

“That this House notes that there are 800,000 people in the UK with dementia and that one in three people over the age of 65 will develop the condition; praises the families and carers of patients with dementia who are vulnerable and can often be distressed and disoriented; further notes an article in The Observer newspaper on 30 November 2014 by Nicci Gerrard whose father, Dr John Gerrard, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in his mid-seventies and died in November 2014; further notes that his family were restricted in the amount of time they were able to spend with him in hospital when he was admitted in February 2014 for a separate condition; further notes that his family were not able to provide a continuation of his normal life when in hospital, such as talking and reading to him and that as a result when he came out of hospital his Alzheimer’s had worsened; and calls on the Government to support the same rights for families and carers of dementia sufferers as parents of sick children and allow for family representatives to stay with the patients at any time of the day as dementia sufferers can struggle to understand and communicate with strangers in unusual surroundings.”