Attempts to develop an NHS market will be halted by the Green Party if they were to be elected.
Green party leader Natalie Bennett said the party would take back the “publicly-owned, publicly-run” health service with “0% of public money going into private profit”.
Attempts to develop an NHS market will be halted by the Green Party if they were to be elected.
Green party leader Natalie Bennett said the party would take back the “publicly-owned, publicly-run” health service with “0% of public money going into private profit”.
The manifesto stated: “We want a public National Health Service, not privatised healthcare. The uncoordinated actions of millions of individuals, with unequal access to wealth and power and urged to maximise their own interests without regard for anyone else’s, will only deepen the crisis.”
The party promised to repeal the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and introduce an NHS reinstatement bill to restore the secretary of state’s obligation to provide a comprehensive service, ending the purchaser-provider split and restricting the role of commercial companies.
The Green Party would immediate increase the overall NHS budget by £12bn a year to “overcome the current funding crisis”, thereafter they would increase the budget annually by 1.2%. This would be funded by increased alcohol and tobacco tax, giving a total rise of £20bn by 2020.
It would restore general practice’s share of NHS funding to 11% from the present 7%, encourage co-operation between primary care providers such as opticians and pharmacies and create new community health centres which would provide out of hours care as well as other services.
It would also provide free social care for older people and focus on improving mental health care and expand the workforce to drive mental health service improvement.
