Put NHS before Tory nuclear folly
Senior reporter Senior reporter NHS spending under the Conservative government is at its lowest since the 1950s, and the latest accounts reveal a funding shortfall of £900 million for 2016-17.
According to a recent study, NHS cuts were responsible for 30,000 excess deaths in 2015 – an unprecedented rise in mortality — but the service has been asked to make another £22 billion cuts.
Secretive sustainability and transformation plans will see thousands of NHS beds slashed across the country, cutting capacity by more than five million patients every year.
The plans will also ensure the closure of A&E departments and the loss of maternity and stroke services.
These cuts will have real and significant impacts on people in the South East’s access to healthcare.
Meanwhile, Theresa May has approved the renewal of Trident, cost £205 billion; is pushing ahead with the Hinkley ‘white elephant’, cost £37 billion; and is looking set to take in a stake in the faltering Moorside and Wylfa nuclear projects, cost £7 billion.
We don’t need Trident, we can’t use it, we can’t afford it. Is Theresa May really prepared to argue that we Senior reporter Senior reporter need the capacity to murder millions more than we need a functioning health care system?
What we need is a fully funded, truly public NHS.
As the world’s fifth largest Reporter Villages editor economy, we can afford so much better. It is about time the Conservatives put the NHS first and halted their £250 billion nuclear folly. Keith Taylor MEP South East, Green Party