Johns Campaign - important developments

Today marks a significant milestone in the campaign for carers of people with dementia who are admitted to hospital to be welcomed to visit them at any time or stay with them. This fast-growing campaign has now been officially endorsed by NHS England in its newly published Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) payment framework for 2016-17, which will offer financial rewards to healthcare providers who apply the principles espoused by John’s Campaign. John’s Campaign – www.johnscampaign.org.uk – was founded on 30 November 2014 by Nicci Gerrard and Julia Jones. It was sparked by the death of Nicci’s father Dr John Gerrard, who had been living well with Alzheimer’s until his admission to hospital for an unrelated condition earlier in the year. During his 5-week stay visits from his family had been severely restricted by hospital policy and his decline was both catastrophic and irreversible. Public response to an article by Nicci in the Observer newspaper made both women aware of the scale of this problem.

There are over 850,000 people in the UK living with dementia. They occupy one in four hospital beds and as a group their experience of hospitalisation is significantly worse than other people of the same age. Julia’s mother, June, aged 92 lives with both Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia and the idea of an unsupported hospital admission for her seems as unthinkable as it would be to expect a young child to cope alone in hospital.

The campaign has met an enthusiastic response from its earliest days and to date 250 hospitals across the UK have pledged to welcome carers of people with dementia whenever the patient needs them. However, Nicci and Julia’s vision is that this should be an embedded, nationwide right. Today NHS England lent its support by making adoption of John’s Campaign one of the official choices available to Clinical Commissioning Groups across the country from April 2016. It is still not mandatory – but what acute hospital or mental health trust will stubbornly continue to refuse access to the carers of these most vulnerable patients?

Alistair Burns (National Clinical Director for Dementia and Mental Health in Older People with NHS England) wrote: “We know that being in hospital can be a frightening experience for anyone and particularly so if you have dementia and memory impairment (…) and we would encourage hospital trusts, as part of the care they provide to individuals with dementia and their families, to consider facilitating an approach whereby the families and carers of people with dementia can support them fully while they are in hospital.”

Jane Cummings (Chief Nursing Officer for England) wrote: “We have actively supported and promoted ‘John’s Campaign’ since its inception as being practical, achievable and representing positive practice in terms of delivering truly person-centred care for people with dementia. We agree that there should be open visiting rules for the carers of people with dementia and the evidence has shown that this is good for patients, good for carers and good for NHS staff.”

Helena Herklots (Chief Executive of CarersUK) was one of the first to welcome the news: “Heartfelt congratulations - a great achievement that will improve the lives of many people with dementia and their carers”

For more information please email [email protected] (01245-231898 or mob.07765-703700) or [email protected] (mob.07971-687403).