Dementia fears bring care issue into spotlight

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the East Kilbride News.

On pages 4 and 5 of today’s paper we tell Mairi-Louise Houldsworth’s story.

A nurse at Hairmyres Hospital, she is well versed when it comes to caring for people alongside her colleagues.

But away from her working environment, she had to deal with her mother Rosina’s diagnosis of mixed dementia.

Rosina lived with the disease for five years before passing away in 2015 at the age of 92.

Keen to make a difference, Mairi and several fellow staff members have become dementia champions and there is no doubt the condition has gained a higher profile in the last couple of years.

With the number of people diagnosed with the condition set to increase, and older people in a survey saying that getting dementia was one of their top two fears alongside being in poverty, this has become a pressing national issue.

Our NHS is something to be immensely proud of. It is to be cherished. It is there when we need it; whether you require treatment for an injury during the day or have a sick child needing attention in the middle of the night. But the pressures on the NHS can’t be ignored. We are getting older as a nation; serious conditions, like dementia, can and need to be managed and expectations of patients are greater.

It’s not just about throwing money at the NHS although we can’t ignore the reality that it needs properly funded.

It’s about strategy and planning; prevention and not just cure.

It’s about ensuring our health service is fit to meet the challenges of 21st century patient care for we will all need it one day.