In October 2024, the UK Government launched a consultation and engagement process with members of the public, staff and patients to determine how it will set about delivering a modern National Health Service (NHS) fit for the future, to meet the changing needs of the UK’s changing population. I was lucky enough to be invited by Alzheimer’s Society to attend the launch event in London. The invitation came in the form of a phone call, on a Friday morning, asking me if I was available the following Monday to represent dementia and dementia carers at the meeting. What puzzled me was that the venue was unknown and would not be communicated to me until all arrangements were in place.
I should have put two and two together and figured out for myself that this was for security reasons, though I had no expectation that the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, would attend and it absolutely did not occur to me the importance of this event was such that the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, would fit an appearance into his busy schedule. I eventually received the logistics and made my way on the Monday morning to the ‘secret venue’ where I found myself amongst 100 specially invited attendees, mostly doctors, nurses, paramedics and staff working in Accident and Emergency departments at London hospitals. In addition to me representing dementia, others were there to speak for diabetes, multiple sclerosis, stroke, etc.
The structured, facilitated discussion fell broadly into three main categories:
• moving more care from hospitals to communities
• making better use of technology in health and care
• focusing on preventing sickness, not just treating it.
It was fascinating and a privilege to be part of the conversation which all of a sudden came to a halt when the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister arrived to address the gathering. I found myself standing immediately behind the Prime Minister for his short speech until he swivelled round to meet and informally chat to us, at which point I took advantage of the time he gave me to talk about the clear need to increase dementia diagnosis rates, support the integration of health and social care systems with appropriate dementia training, and address the inequalities of care. The UK Government has taken the view that this is a once in a generation opportunity to set the NHS on a path for the future and I was delighted that my voice was requested to be part of the fixing process.