The Greens have launched a "game changing" investment plan for the NHS
The Green Party has launched its offer for the NHS ahead of its manifesto release, with what the party has described as a ‘game changing’ investment to ‘nurse the NHS back to health’.
Along with a pledge to deliver £30bn per year for the NHS in England by 2030, the party has also made an additional £20bn a year commitment to social care. The party said its package will ‘restore the dignity of both staff and patients’.
Here are three key things the party has pledged for the NHS:
- Set up a £20bn capital investment programme to improve crumbling hospital buildings, primary care facilities and bring outdated equipment up to modern standards.
- Increase NHS frontline workers’ salaries including doctors, dentists and nurses by investing £5bn a year towards the pay boost.
- Ensuring people who need mental health treatments can access them within 28 days, while also making same day GP appointments for those in urgent need, become a reality over time.
Co-Leader of the Greens, Adrian Ramsay, said the plans were fully costed, with the money coming from a tax on the “very richest” people, including a 1% tax on assets over £10m and 2% on assets over £1bn. He said this could raise “tens of billions” over the next five years. They would also raise the money by adjusting capital gains and windfall taxes for oil and gas companies.
Alongside the investment promises, the party has made a “cast-iron guarantee” that Green MPs will fight privatisation of the NHS.
Carla Denyer, Green Party Co-Leader, said: “Our Green guarantee to protect the NHS from privatisation, combined with today’s announcement, represents a game-changing offer for our National Health Service that will restore the dignity of staff and patients alike.
“It offers real change from the managed decline of recent years and offers real hope to all of us who rely on the NHS.”
The Green Party will release its manifesto on June, 12.
(Image credit: Matthew Phillip Long)
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