Kate Garraway today revealed her husband Derek Draper is back in hospital as the 56-year-old continues to struggle with the impacts of debilitating Long Covid

Kate Garraway has announced her beloved husband Derek Draper has suffered a health set-back as she shared her concerns following he re-admission to hospital.

Admitting recently that he’s “not doing great” after battling a nasty infection, Good Morning Britain presenter Kate today provided a worrying update to the Loose Women panel. The former political adviser, 56, contracted Covid-19 back in 2020 and suffered serious complications.

He spent months needing 24 hour-a-day care after even after returning home, he still requires a full-time nurse. He now uses a wheelchair and has little strength in his arms, with his cognition and speech also affected. But now he’s back in hospital and emotional Kate says his battle with Long Covid shows no signs of ending yet.

Kate Garraway revealed her struggling husband Derek Draper was back in hospital ( 
Image:
PA)

GMB presenter Kate opened up on Loose Women this morning ( 
Image:
S Meddle/ITV/REX)
She explained: “He’s actually back in the hospital at the moment, I haven’t talked about this, but not the horrific drama fortunately, because there have been lots of, as we all experience, referrals and cancellations.” He’s gone back in for something that he began last year which he needed the second part of which will hopefully mean he has more movement, physical fractures.

“So it’s a positive hospital thing. So he’s actually not at home at the moment. So when the visiting game, but hopefully won’t be in for too long.” She the panel to discuss Carer’s Rights Day as she gave an update on Derek’s health. He was discharged on a trial basis in April 2021 but has been readmitted to the wards multiple times with numerous health issues, including kidney failure, brain inflammation and liver damage.

After speaking about her new book, focusing on her care for her husband, she explained: “It’s not that you want to be a ‘poor me’ about it because on the one hand I feel incredibly fortunate because so many hundreds of 1000s of people, everyday people lose people.

She demanded a meeting with the Health Secretary to discuss problems within the health system

“I talk in the book about grief and it took me a long time to admit that as a family we were grieving because I felt guilty because actual bereavement, so many are going through, that you feel that this is a lesser degree, but really, it is a kind of grief because you go through mini deaths when someone’s very ill.”

In September, the mum tore into the Health Secretary and demanded a meeting to discuss problems within the health system. She said: “I don’t want to ambush you on air, but I have been trying to contact you and I have been trying to contact [social care minister] Helen Whately as well and I haven’t been able to.

“I have been able to contact your equivalents on the shadow side and I have met with them and talked to them. I’d like to come and talk to you – not about Derek, by the way, this is not trying to get something for him. “This is about representing millions of people across the country who, like me every day, in one hand feel like they are holding the life of their loved one and in the other hand – I don’t want to cry – are just punching and punching away at a system.”

She added: “It isn’t about money. I’ve got five points, if you or Helen would return some of my attempts to make contact with you, to talk to you about it, because it’s not just about social care but health care and the way it’s interrelating. It would be wonderful if you could.”