Katie Hopkins: Sufferers of dementia are blocking beds

FORMER Apprentice contestant Katie Hopkins has enraged mental health campaigners after branding dementia patients ‘bed blockers’.

The outspoken TV pundit questioned the use of assisting those living with the disease, asking her Twitter followers: ‘What is the point of life when you no longer know you are living it?’

Miss Hopkins, pictured, was rebuked online over the remarks, which were described as ‘disgraceful’ and ‘ill-informed’.

In an unprovoked outburst on the social media site, she wrote: ‘Dementia sufferers should not be blocking beds. What is the point of life when you no longer know you are living it? Bang me over the head.’

The 40-year-old added: ‘The day I am diagnosed with dementia is the day I book my ticket to Dignitas. This country still treats animals more humanely than humans.’

Miss Hopkins’s comments sparked an outpouring of disgust from Twitter users, who called her ‘abysmal’ and said she had gone ‘too far’.

The Alzheimer’s Society said the disease costs the economy more than £26billion a year. George McNamara of the charity said: ‘ These disgraceful remarks only serve to reinforce the stigma that sadly prevents many people with dementia from feeling like valued members of society. Ill-informed comments such as these go against all that we know about dementia. People with the condition tell us that with the right support it is entirely possible to live well and take real enjoyment out of daily life.

‘The 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK deserve far more than to be used as bait by people stoking controversy.’

Hundreds of angry messages were left in response to Miss Hopkins’s tweet.

Julie Mackay wrote: ‘You are beyond a joke! You and your foul account needs to be shut down.’ Andrew Davison described Miss Hopkins as an ‘ignorant b****’, and Lisa Raggatt tweeted: ‘You vile, sick human being. Shame on you.’

Gregor Stewart added: ‘You’re an absolute attention seeking, vile b**** who needs to have social media sites shut you down.’ Fellow Twitter user Red Wazza said the remarks were ‘like saying someone with terminal cancer should be left on the street. Idiot.’

Responding to the criticism, Miss Hopkins said yesterday: ‘It is high time the UK caught up with civilised nations and adopted voluntary euthanasia in order that people may die with the same dignity we accord to much-loved pets.’