Greens respond to claim the NHS is ‘running on fumes'
26 June 2017
*Co-leader Jonathan Bartley: “No other party appears to be engaging with the magnitude of the problem”
The Green Party has renewed its call for investment in the NHS and the end of privatisation following comments by the British Medical Association that the NHS is ‘running on fumes’ [1].
Jonathan Bartley, Green Party co-leader, said:
“Jeremy Hunt must listen to staff and patients on the frontline who are experiencing day in and day out the effects of a two pronged attack on our health service in the form of chronic underinvestment and privatisation. Attempts to further privatise our health service in an illusory quest for greater ‘efficiency savings’ are clearly counterproductive. There is also a clear alternative to starving the NHS of funding it so desperately needs. These are political choices, and there are other options.
“The NHS is indeed running on fumes, and no other party appears to be engaging with the magnitude of the problem. It is time not just to fill up the tank again, but replace the engine with one fit for the modern era.
“The Green Party is also the only party proposing to properly fill the funding gap and would invest more money year on year than any other party. This includes scrapping Trident renewal which alone would give the NHS the kiss of life it desperately needs, providing an extra £3.6bn every year which would pay for 85,000 nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals. But as well as reversing privatisation and reinstating a publicly run NHS, we should give patients, staff and others at the frontline a greater voice and control in running of our health service.”
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