Green Party conference votes for new health policy to safeguard the NHS “against undue commercial influence”
Adrian Ramsay MP said: "Every major decision should ask: will this improve people’s health and reduce health inequalities?”
Members of the Green Party of England and Wales have voted to overhaul their policies on healthcare. The vote took place at the party’s autumn conference in Brighton.
The party says that these policies will seek to deliver the “real National Health Service we deserve” and introduce a plan to end health inequality.
The measures include a commitment to a publicly owned, publicly provided and publicly accountable NHS, funded at a level to meet need and free at the point of use. This would be extended to cover dental, optometry, pharmacy and hearing care.
The policy would also seek to ensure that the the NHS is “safeguarded against undue commercial influence on decision-making”.
That area of the policy states: “Government committees exercising advisory and regulatory functions in health will be shielded against undue commercial influence through robust safeguards designed to ensure that the selection of medical interventions is always determined by safety and efficacy, not commercial factors. These safeguards shall apply to all committees exercising such functions, including but not limited to; National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN), Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), and Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MRHA).”
The vote at the conference was on one of the more extensive rewrites of Green Party policy. Rather than being simply a vote on a single issue, it was a comprehensive review of the party’s entire health policy chapter.
Speaking following the motion passing, Adrian Ramsay MP, health spokesperson for the Green Party’s MPs, said: “The Green Party is committed to the real National Health Service we deserve – publicly owned, publicly provided and available to all. Greens also see the bigger picture. We want to consider the wider determinants to health. This policy, agreed by Green Party members today, sets human health in the context of fairness, sustainability and planetary health.
“Good health is the foundation of a fair and thriving society and economy. We need health to be considered in every area of government, from housing and transport to food production and the environment. Every major decision should ask: will this improve people’s health and reduce health inequalities?”
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: Jon Craig – Creative Commons
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