The Green Party has promised to invest more than £50bn in the NHS in its manifesto, to be funded via higher taxes on the wealthy.
The manifesto, launched today, details plans to invest to nurse the NHS back to health with extra spending on health and social care rising to over £50bn per year by 2030, and £20bn capital investment to bring crumbling hospitals, primary care buildings and outdated equipment up to modern standards.
Green Party co-leader, Adrian Ramsay, said today: “Britain’s health care is broken. After 14 years of underinvestment, it now needs bold plans to nurse it back to health.
“Greens are proud to be offering more than any other party to invest to nurse our NHS back to health.
“Greens will be honest about what is needed.
“By asking those with the broadest shoulders to pay more – including the very wealthiest – we can invest in the frontline service and infrastructure that we all rely on.”
Fully-funded NHS
The Green manifesto states: “The NHS faces the worst crisis in its 80-year history.
“This is the result of deliberate Conservative under-funding that’s seen the NHS undermined and at risk of collapse, paving the way for further privatisation.
“The Green Party is committed to a fully public, properly funded health and social care system, and to keeping the profit motive well away from the NHS.”
The manifesto says that Green MPs will push for:
- A year-on-year reduction in waiting lists
- Guaranteed access to an NHS dentist
- Guaranteed rapid access to a GP and same day access in case of urgent need
- An immediate boost to the pay of NHS staff, including the restoration of junior doctors’ pay, to help with staff retention.
The party said a wealth tax would be levied on individual taxpayers with assets above £10m at 1% and assets above £1bn at 2% annually. It estimates less than 1% of households will pay this tax.
Dental care
The manifesto also addresses NHS dental care, and says Green MPs will end the systematic underfunding of dentistry and the scandal of dental treatment deserts by pushing for:
- A new NHS dentists’ contract so that dentists are properly rewarded for taking on NHS patients
- Additional investment in NHS dentistry reaching £3bn a year by 2030.
- Funding for community hubs and primary care to roll-out free dental nursing for children and those on low incomes.
Mental health and neurodiversity
The manifesto noted that: “There’s been a dramatic rise in mental health problems in recent years, particularly among young people, with far too many unable to access help when they need it.”
It says elected Greens will press for:
- A legal framework that supports the rights of those struggling with their mental health to be respected and to live fulfilling lives.
- Increased funding for mental health care, putting it on an equal footing with physical healthcare and enabling people to access evidence-based mental health therapies within 28 days.
- A trained and paid counsellor in every school and sixth-form college.
- Readily available tailored provision to meet the needs of communities of colour, children and adolescents, older people and LGBTIQA+ communities.
- Adequate support in the school system for neurodivergent children and children with special educational needs.
Assisted dying
The Greens also promise to legalise assisted dying.
The manifesto says: “Elected Greens will support a change in the law to legalise assisted dying for people suffering from terminal disease who wish to avoid prolonged unnecessary suffering, if this is their clear and settled will. Proper safeguards would be put in place.”
End new cases of HIV
The manifesto also says that Green MPs will work towards no more HIV transmissions by 2030, advocating for a joined-up evidence based approach, including access to the HIV prevention pill online, in pharmacies and from GP services, and renewing successful opt-out HIV testing programmes in A&Es in all areas with a high prevalence of HIV.
