John’s Campaign was founded after the death of Dr John Gerrard in November 2014.
John Gerrard had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in his mid‐70s but was managing to live a good, if limited, life at home, caring for his wife and supported by his family.
He was admitted to hospital in February 2014, aged 86, to receive treatment for infected leg ulcers. During his five‐week stay visits from his family were severely restricted due to an infection outbreak and his decline was catastrophic.
His daughter, Nicci, said: “My father went into hospital articulate and able: he emerged a broken man.”
His story sparked an outpouring of public sympathy – and far too many similar accounts.
Johnʹs Campaign focuses on people with dementia but there are many others who are frail or who have particular needs who would benefit from the nurture of a family member or trusted friend when they are in hospital.
There is no intention to trespass on the domain of nurses, merely to offer them a unique form of support in delivering compassionate and effective patient care. It is simple, virtually cost‐free and chimes immediately with what people know to be right.
There are already hospitals or wards within hospitals which act in this way. What is unacceptable is the randomness and variation between these islands of good practice.
The right of the willing family carer to continue support and the patient to continue to receive it through a hospital admission needs to be as universally accepted as the right of parents to remain with their children.
