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Health
- Social Care/Mental Health will be brought under the NHS banner.
- Involve doctors (specifically, Consultants) and nurses (specifically, Matrons) significantly in day to day management decisions thus reducing middle-management in the NHS.
- A Cuban Style Health System:
- The entire Cuban health system is based on the model called “The family doctor and nurse”, developed in 1984. This model, whose basic unit is the family nucleus, has a clinical, epidemiological and social approach to health problems.
- Set up at least one polyclinic in every council ward and ensure that it serves no more than a population of 10,000 people and that it collaborates with local GP’s as well as hospitals.
- This new health approach will emphasise prevention, primary care, services in the community, and the active participation of citizens.
- Expand Primary Care Services to 7 days a week.
- Use £10 billion of capital funds to make necessary investments in equipment, hospitals, polyclinics, digitalisation, ambulances etc., to bring them into the 21st century.
- The option to opt out along Dutch lines:
- The Liberal Party will allow an opt-out procedure (for those not wishing to benefit from the NHS) designed not to compromise the integrity of the universal service.
- Would be entitled to a tax rebate.
- Must be over the age of 16.
- Expand the number of doctors and nurses to reduce costs and the apparent understaffing of the NHS through increased medical school places and fast-tracked visa approvals for foreign doctors and nurses wishing to work in Britain.
- Invest £10 billion in mental health (approximately £1 billion annually) over the course of the next decade to expand access to therapies and increase the number of psychiatrists and specialist mental health practitioners. We will make mental health services 24-hour, including placing mental health liaison teams in all hospitals so that those facing a mental health crisis are not put in police cells.
- Abolish all prescription charges.
- Increase pay by at least > 10% for all NHS staff.
- Reforming and increasing funding for the NHS dental services contract, to ensure it:
- Encourages and incentivises dentists to take on NHS patients,
- Meets patient need and demand rather than arbitrary targets,
- Puts an end to ‘dental deserts’.
Social Care
- Create a Royal College of Care Workers comparable to the Royal College of Nursing and Midwives.
- Set up a National Care Service within the NHS umbrella which will provide free personal care in England for people who are assessed as needing support at home (washing, dressing, medication etc.), whatever their age. People will be entitled to get free care if they have earnings, savings or assets of less than £20,000 (personal tax allowance). Those with earnings, savings and assets of between £20,000 and £50,250 have to fund part of their care on a sliding scale, while people with more than £50,250 in terms of earnings, savings and assets will have to fund their own care entirely:
- Financing Social Care will come directly from Local Government and cost approximately between 20-25bn annually.
- Scrap The Health and Care Act 2022.
Carers
- Increase carer’s allowance to £2,500 a year.
- Introduce a statutory guarantee of regular respite breaks for unpaid carers, and require councils to make regular contact with carers to offer support and signpost services.
- Provide a package of carer benefits such as free leisure centre access, free bus travel for young carers, and self-referral to socially prescribed activities and courses.
- Raise the amount people can earn before losing their Carer’s Allowance from £123 to £384 a week (£20,000 pa), and reduce the number of hours care per week required to qualify for.
Miscellaneous
- Introducing a guarantee that 100% of Cancer patients will be able to start treatment within 42 days from urgent referral.
- Increasing the number of full-time equivalent GPs by 10,000, half by boosting recruitment and half from retaining more experienced GPs.
- Introducing a universal 24/7 GP booking system.
- Work towards a fairer and more sustainable long-term funding model for pharmacies, and build on the Pharmacy First approach to give patients more accessible routine services and ease the pressure on GPs.
- Provide a fair funding deal for hospices, including children’s hospices, recognising the valuable services they provide and saving money on hospital admissions.
- Increasing the Public Health Grant, with a proportion of the extra funding set aside for those experiencing the worst health inequalities to co-produce plans for their communities.
- Introduce a new kite-mark for clinically proven health apps, enabling individuals to manage their own health.
- Launch a government-backed nationwide campaign to encourage exercise and healthier habits, dedicating an existing bank holiday for wellness events.
- Make the improvement of the nation’s health a key priority for government, emphasising prevention, addressing inequalities, and adopting an ‘invest to save’ funding model.
- Ban energy drink sales to under 16s, only allowing junk-food advertising after 9pm, and grant local authorities powers to restrict junk-food advertising and unhealthy food outlets near schools.
