Sealed with a kiss, PM’s vow to fix dementia care
We have to sort it out, Boris tells Dame Barbara
DAME Barbara Windsor extracted a pledge from Boris Johnson yesterday that he will fix Britain’s broken dementia care system.
The Prime Minister held hands with the ailing actress in the garden of No 10, kissed her on the cheek and told her: ‘I’m going to do my best for you.’
In a rare public appearance, Dame Barbara, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s five years ago, said: ‘Our plea to Boris Johnson is please, please don’t let people with dementia down.’
The 82-year-old and her husband Scott Mitchell have backed the Daily Mail’s campaign calling for urgent reform of our broken care system. Nearly 300,000 readers have signed our petition, adding to pressure on the Government to end the scandal that forces families to sell their homes to pay for dementia care.
Mr Mitchell said: ‘It’s been brilliant to see the huge support raised by the Daily Mail, and the passion their readers have shown for fixing the crisis.’
Dame Barbara, who starred in nine Carry On films and played pub landlady Peggy Mitchell in East-Enders, delivered an open letter signed by 100,000 people calling for better care for dementia sufferers. Mr Johnson assured her: ‘We’ll do this. It’s very hard. We have to sort it out.’
At the end of their chat, Dame Barbara asked him: ‘Can I have a kiss?’ The Prime Minister responded, ‘Of course you can’ – and pecked her on the cheek.
The letter from the Alzheimer’s Society echoes the Daily Mail’s call for the creation of an NHS Dementia Fund in tomorrow’s Government spending review to help families pay extra care costs.
More than 850,000 people in Britain have dementia, but anyone with more than £23,250 in assets including the value of their home – has to pay the full cost of their care. Mr Mitchell, 56, said: ‘The Prime Minister listened to us carefully and we felt he understood just how awful things are for people with dementia.
‘We are grateful that his government are going to push ahead with a long-term solution. We cannot leave people with dementia in this current state. It is appalling that this should be happening in our country in the 21st century.’
Dame Barbara and her husband were named ambassadors for the Alzheimer’s Society last month.
Chief executive Jeremy Hughes said the charity was hugely grateful to the couple for giving ‘thousands of people with dementia and their families a voice’. He added: ‘We’re delighted that the Prime Minister took the time to hear personally about the dementia care crisis today, showing his commitment to fix social care once and for all.
‘The Prime Minister agreed that people with dementia have the right to the same care as people with cancer, a heart condition or any other disease.
‘I told the Prime Minister that the £1billion promised for social care won’t do anything now to help the hundreds of thousands of people with dementia who are struggling every day without the help that they desperately need to get and pay for care. The Government simply has to provide a £2.4billion NHS Dementia Fund.’
Charities and campaign groups backed the Daily Mail’s call for an immediate boost to social care funding in Chancellor Sajid Javid’s spending review tomorrow.
Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: ‘Patients will be looking for the Chancellor to... provide the funding to ensure that the Prime Minister’s pledges to end the social care crisis and ensure high standards in the NHS are delivered on.’