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.