Good Morning Britain Presenter Kate Garraway has challenged Wes Streeting on healthcare funding, saying she’s been left with unpayable debt after caring for her late husband. Garraway’s husband Derek Draper passed away on January 3, 2024 after a long battle with the aftereffects of coronavirus.
On yesterday’s episode of Good Morning Britain (Friday, January 3), Garraway told the Health Secretary “people can’t afford four more years of this”.
She said: “Over the last few weeks, the family and I have been talking about the challenges we faced this time last year. And one of the overriding ones, when [my husband] went back into intensive care before he passed away, was dealing with the funding of care.
“At the time of his death there were two appeals that hadn’t been heard for funding. It kept on getting pushed back and pushed back. In the meantime, and I’m lucky I’ve got an incredible job which is well paid, I was having to fund the situation.
“Now I’ve got excessive unpayable debt because of it. And if I’m in that position, what else are people going to be? People can’t afford four more years of this.”
Streeting, who is also Labour MP for Ilford North, expressed sympathy for Garraway’s loss: “Firstly Kate, I know lots of viewers will feel the same, having followed [Mr Draper’s story]. Your anniversary that you’re going through – yourself and your family – all of us are with you.
“I think that’s why your story connected with so many people. It’s not just that you’re a familiar face on people’s screens and your viewers feel they’ve got a relationship with you as a presenter.
“It’s also because your experience with Derek, and your family’s experience resonates with so many people across the country who are struggling with the same costs or the same unmet needs or similar experiences.”
He then reflected that high costs can make people want to “stick their head in the sand” when it comes to funding social care. Streeting remarked: “I think one of the reasons why we’ve always ended back into this short-termist cycle of failure is: whenever we talk about social care, there are costs involved.
“And that sort of makes people run for the hills and want to stick their head in the sand in politics, because sometimes those numbers can be scary. One of the reasons I genuinely think – even with the majority of the size that we’ve got – it’s a good thing to try and build cross-party consensus.
“I want to come up with a plan that means whoever’s in government after the next general election or the one after that, whether it’s a Labour government or a Conservative government or a coalition, or whoever, that broadly speaking, we keep the same direction of travel on social care in the way that we have with the NHS since 1948.”
Labour proposed a National Care Service in their 2024 election manifesto. They pledged that the National Care Service would have a ‘home-first’ focus and would prioritise the independence of the patients: “Labour will undertake a programme of reform to create a National Care Service, underpinned by national standards, delivering consistency of care across the country. Services will be locally delivered, with a principle of ‘home first’ that supports people to live independently for as long as possible.
“Our new standards will ensure high-quality care and ongoing sustainability, and ensure providers behave responsibly. Labour will develop local partnership working between the NHS and social care on hospital discharge.”