One thing that unites us is our love of the NHS
EVERYONE KNOWS that we have an aging and increasing population. Everyone knows that the accident and emergency waiting times are the worst in NHS history and that the NHS is struggling. The reason is that top Tories just don’t care about the
NHS and fail to understand the relationship between various aspects of our society. When the increased funding requirement for the NHS was four per cent a year the actual increase was 1.6 per cent.
The consequences of Conservative rule over the past 10 years have been a loss of 17,000 beds, a shortage of 10,000 doctors and 40,000 nurses. The pressure on the remaining staff is so great that health professionals are leaving the NHS to protect their own health. Many patients could be discharged if social care was available.
However, 10 years of austerity policies have resulted in a social care system struggling to cope and 122,000 staff vacancies.
With the national census and the age profile of NHS and social care staff it is possible to make a reasonable estimate of future staffing needs. However, the Conservative government preferred tax cuts for the rich instead of training our young people.
There were sufficient youngsters with the appropriate A-level grades to enter medical school but few new places were created. The only encouragement they got was a tripling of tuition fees. Entrants to nursing were discouraged by the scrapping of bursaries.
Boris’s pre-election promise was to recruit 50,000 more nurses but no indication of how. Training takes organisation, time and money. Active recruitment from abroad is possible but the Green Party thinking is that it is immoral for the UK to bribe trained doctors and nurses from third world countries. They have gone to the expense of training staff and are in even greater need than the UK.
The NHS needs more money and all that is needed is to give it higher priority. Military expenditure could easily be cut without effecting our security, HS2 could be scrapped and taxes could be applied to aviation and marine fuel. A sugar tax and minimum pricing of alcohol could be introduced.
Many factors influence the health of the population. Food, housing, energy, education and culture spring to mind. In the past 10n years foodbanks have been the fastest growing sector of the economy. Many school children are going to school hungry and some schools are trying to help.
However, it is not good for anyone’s physical and mental health to be deprived of food. Decent housing is essential for one’s health and people need sufficient money to heat their homes. .
Education is a key factor in contributing to a healthy lifestyle. However, the pressure on schools to satisfy Ofsted means that health education is neglected. Green Party policy is to provide all pupils with a free nutritious lunch and to educate them on basic healthy eating.
I view education as a lifetime experience and governments have a responsibility to promote healthy eating.The provision of good sporting and cultural facilities leads to good health. Locally, we have lost the Calderdale Schools of PE and Music, sports fields and swimming pools in the past 20 years.
Calderdale has a Healthy Living Strategy and GPs are trying to encourage healthy lifestyles. Calderdale Leisure Services have a wide range of activities, although sadly no facilities in Elland.
It is going to take years to sort the problems in the NHS. However, although we may be deeply divided on Brexit, our affection for the NHS is something that unites us. I propose that government policy and money should be directed towards healthy lifestyles for everyone to reduce demand on the NHS.
Everyone should make the effort to live healthily.