The Observer view on dementia care | Observer editorial

John’s Campaign – to allow carers full access to their loved ones in hospital – is gathering momentum

Last November, we carried a harrowing account by Nicci Gerrard, a long-standing Observer journalist and acclaimed novelist, of the decline endured by her father, John, who had Alzheimer’s, after he was admitted to hospital suffering from leg ulcers. She described how he entered the ward articulate and able, but emerged just weeks later a broken man. The problem she identified was not one of inadequate medical care. On the contrary, his treatment by doctors and nurses was exemplary; they healed his infection and cared for him with kindness and respect.

Instead, she believes, the terrible descent she chronicled during his five-week stay in hospital into incoherence, incontinence and bewilderment happened because he was deprived of the support that his family and friends could provide by regulations preventing them visiting whenever they wanted – and needed – to be by his side. The response she received was powerful and showed that her experience was typical of that of thousands more.

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