How do we rebuild a publically funded and administered NHS that prioritises patients and helps them to live longer, healthier lives?
Policy Commission: Health and Social Care
Policy Areas: The Health and Social Care Policy Commission develops Labour policy and thinking on areas including the future of the NHS, mental health, public health and social care.
Basingstoke Issues:
GP surgery mergers, NHS privitisation, GP waiting times
Email your suggestions for other local issues in this policy area.
Rebuilding a public NHS
Background:
Last year, we celebrated the 70th birthday of Labour’s National Health Service (NHS); a service that provides universal healthcare for all, publicly funded and free at the point of use. Labour created the NHS and will always defend it – and now more than ever our NHS is at risk from privatisation, reforms that limit access to health services and crucially, the impact of years of austerity on NHS finances.
For Labour, the NHS is the greatest engine of social justice ever seen. Thanks to a public universal National Health Service life expectancy is now 13 years higher than it was 70 years ago. But after almost nine years of austerity measures from this Government, life expectancy is going backwards for some of the very poorest people, health inequalities are getting wider and infant mortality rates are beginning to increase. Even the NHS’s Long Term Plan now argues economic inequality is costing the NHS £4.8 billion a year in greater numbers of hospitalisations.
Labour believes privatisation in our NHS has been a failed, wasteful, expensive experiment. The reality is a public NHS provides better quality care for patients which is why at our Annual Conference last year Labour made clear our commitment to begin the process of renationalising and reinstating a public NHS.
Key Questions:
- What does Labour need to do in its first term in Government to ensure NHS funding reaches the areas most in need?
- Should public health services continue to be provided by local government or should they return to the NHS? Should this include social care?
- How do we ensure democratic oversight over local NHS decisions?
- How can we ensure that the health and social care workforce work together to deliver services that meet the needs of the population?
Full details: Rebuilding a public NHS
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Consultation End Date: 30th June 2019