Adult Social Care & Health Select Committee

He has spent twenty years in healthcare, from Alzheimer's research to getting new diagnostics to patients, and wanted that experience to count locally.

In his experience, most things go wrong when someone moves between services: from hospital back home, or from the NHS to the council. That is where he keeps asking questions.

He was asked to contribute to the borough's major hospital development because of his professional background. He also worked with a cross-party community campaign to keep one of the last hospices in Kensington and Chelsea open, because some things matter more than party lines.

What he pushes for

• More care in the community, so people don't end up in hospital when they could have been helped earlier.
• The same standard of dementia care wherever you live in the borough.
• The NHS and the council working together properly, so residents aren't passed from one to the other.
• Judging services by how residents are doing, not only by what they cost.

Why dementia matters to him

Marc's PhD research depended on families affected by dementia who chose to support it, in some cases by donating the brains of relatives they had lost. Earning and keeping their trust is one of the things he is proudest of in his career.

He has since volunteered with Dementia UK and Alzheimer's Research UK. He knows what dementia does to a family, and he wants the care available in this borough to reflect that.

The bigger picture

Much of what the committee sees locally comes back to national decisions about the NHS: how quickly proven technology is adopted, and how much care can move out of hospitals and closer to home. Marc sets out his thinking in A More Productive, Local NHS.

Getting help

If you or someone you care for needs support, the council's Adult Social Care pages explain how to ask for help. If you live in Norland and things are not moving, get in touch with Marc.