Kate Garraway clashes with Wes Streeting over cost of Derek's healthcare

Evening Standard

Transcript

00:00I'm thinking about the situation with Derek.

00:02It actually happens to be the anniversary of his death,

00:04one-year anniversary of his death today,

00:06which is a day only relevant to me.

00:08But over the last few weeks, the family and I

00:10have been talking about the challenges

00:12we faced this time last year, this time last year.

00:15And one of the overriding ones, so he went back

00:18into intensive care before he passed away,

00:20was dealing with the funding of care.

00:22At the time of his death, there were two appeals

00:25that hadn't been heard for funding.

00:28It kept on getting pushed back and pushed back.

00:31In the meantime, and I'm lucky, I've got an incredible job,

00:34which is well paid, I was having to fund the situation.

00:38Now, I've got excessive unpayable debt because of it.

00:43And if I'm in that position, what else are people going to be?

00:47People can't afford four more years of this.

00:53Yeah, and firstly, Kate, and I know lots of viewers

00:57will feel the same having followed.

00:59I think that's why the anniversary you're going through,

01:03yourself and your family, which all of us are with you

01:05with a totally heart, heart, heart,

01:09and a tiny heart on that.

01:11I only mention it because I'm aware that there are people

01:15that are in the situation that just don't have that time.

01:18Yeah, I was going to say, Kate,

01:22I think that's why your story connected with so many people.

01:26It's not just that your familiar face on people's screens

01:29and your viewers feel they've got relationship with you

01:32as a presenter, it's also because your experience

01:34with Derek and your family's experience

01:37resonates with so many people across the country

01:39who are struggling with the same costs

01:42or the same unmet needs or similar experiences.

01:47And I think one of the reasons why we've ended

01:49always back into this sort of the short-term cycle

01:52of failure is whenever we talk about social care,

01:55there are costs involved and that sort of makes people

01:58run for the hills and want to stick their head

02:00in the sands in politics because sometimes

02:02those numbers can be scary.

02:04And one of the reasons I genuinely think,

02:05even with the majority of the size that we've got,

02:08it's a good thing to try and build cross-party consensus

02:12is I want to come up with a plan that means

02:14whoever's in government after the next general election

02:16or the one after that, whether it's a Labour government

02:19or a Conservative government or a coalition or whoever,

02:23broadly speaking, we keep the same direction of travel

02:26on social care in the way that we have

02:28with the NHS since 1948.

02:30Because that, for me, has been one of the successes

02:32of the NHS politically.

02:34It's great that it's there for everyone,

02:35but it's also the politics, absolutely.

02:38I want to do this properly.

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