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