“Trying to find out how to get care for my Dad was like wading through treacle backwards.”

These are the words of the daughter of one of my patients who was diagnosed with Dementia during the pandemic, and typically, I would signpost them to the relevant charities and advocacy organisations like AGE U.K. and Alzheimer’s Society. However, she sees me every month for an injection I administer for her cancer, which gives me an opportunity to check on how she is coping with her Dad. This is therapeutic for her as she describes the latest drama and challenges she is experiencing, and we can laugh and cry over the latest shenanigans.

It is mutually therapeutic because of my personal experience of living in a multigenerational household with my elderly parents and also being a carer for my widowed great aunty who lives in sheltered accommodation a few miles away. But credit where it’s due, the main people shouldering this burden whilst I am at work are my wife and her network of friends and carers.

Seeing the challenges of growing old and how we address these issues, which we will all inevitably face if we live long enough, is a real eye-opener.

The pandemic and shielding of the elderly and vulnerable have taken their toll on my parents, and I have had to try and navigate a path to address their needs at a time when the NHS is in terminal decline and social care is fragmented.

During these difficult times, the most precious commodity we have as healthcare professionals in providing good care is time. But in an age where we are living lives at 100mph and everything is going online to ostensibly save time, we seem to have less and less of this gift for others, let alone ourselves.

I will be posting personal reflections which will come from my professional experience of having been a South London GP for over 25 years but also as the son of elderly parents, the husband of a wife with her own elderly parents living 250 miles away; and the father of 3 sons, who have confounded the stereotypes of Gen Z, by being a constant source of help and comfort. I hope it is of some use and can help us all wade through the “treacle” of providing the best health and social care for our elderly and vulnerable, inshallah!