'My dad has Alzheimer's, I know the pain of collapsing social care - we've all failed to deal with it,' says Burnham

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Andy Burnham says he is facing the strife known by many families battling the country's collapsing social care system, as his father lives with Alzheimer’s disease.

But all political parties have failed to ‘grasp the nettle’, say candidates for Greater Manchester’s mayoral elections. Bolton GP and chair of the Bolton GP Federation, Dr Kamran Khan, asked the hopeful mayors how they would improve social care and raise its standing in communities given the NHS’ widespread financial and resource crisis.

Labour’s Andy Burnham told of how he knew of the frustrations faced by many with his ‘dad, who has Alzheimer’s’. Mr Burnham lamented that ‘14 years ago’, he put forward a ‘national care service’ plan in Westminster while he was still health secretary but it did not materialise. “If you don’t have simple, good care in people’s homes, you end up dragging down the NHS with too many people in hospital who get stuck there and then can’t come out, and then you get overloaded primary care,” he said. “Social care is preventative care and the continued collapse of it is now being felt in the health service every day.

There is only one answer, the political parties have to show courage on this issue and fix social care properly – and I put forward a plan for that 14 years ago.” READ MORE: Greater Manchester mayor hustings LIVE: Candidates quizzed by M.E.N.