Havering has had the fastest growing number of children of any London borough over the past few years, and we also have the highest proportion of elderly residents in the capital. Healthcare is therefore high up the list of issues that constituents contact me about.
With the overall population on the up, getting our system of social care, GP services and hospital treatment right going forward will be ever more crucial in the coming decades. I recently met the council and local hospital trust, and asked a question in parliament, to try to secure a large new medical facility on the St George’s Hospital site in Hornchurch alongside the new houses in the pipeline.
Today I also visited Tapestry, a wonderful facility in Hornchurch for dementia sufferers, to see their pioneering model of care and hear about their plans to roll it out to improve the quality of life for people with memory loss. Tapestry believe they may have found the key to keeping dementia patients and their carers out of expensive hospital care and helping them stay in their own homes. I shall be working with them going forward in contributing to the Health Secretary's Social Care Challenge, which sets out the seven criteria that we need to address in meeting the growing needs of older people in our society.