The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
It’s the eleventh hour for our NHS and only Labour can save it.
Labour created the NHS, only Labour can save our NHS, only Labour truly respects the workers who now desperately need reform.
What’s the difference between a python eating a hamster and the Tories being in charge of the NHS?
Absolutely nothing, according to former Conservative prime minister John Major, who famously quipped that the NHS is about as safe with Boris Johnson and Michael Gove “as a pet hamster would be with a hungry python.”
Many say the NHS is already half way down the python’s gullet after nearly ten years of Tory rule, even without the risk of Johnson selling it to Trump and that the only way the health service can be saved is if Labour extracts it from the serpent’s jaws.
But what will Labour’s NHS rescue mission look like? For starters, the most immediate threat to the NHS – Tory plans to include the health service in a trade deal with the Trump administration – will be quashed.
Stopping the Tories from doing any more damage to the NHS is just the first step. After the rescue will come the resuscitation, rehabilitation and the strengthening of the health service.
Labour will restore a publicly administered, publicly accountable, comprehensive and universal NHS. It has pledged a £26bn in real terms funding boost.
Instead of the staff and skills shortages crippling the health service at the moment, Labour will invest £330m in staff training, legislate for safe staffing and bring back NHS bursaries to train 24,000 more nurses and midwives.
GP training places will be expanded by 50 per cent to 5,000 a year, helping to deliver 27m extra appointments, while the number of health visitors and school nurses will also be increased.
To fully fund public health services, Labour will implement a number of measures, including raising income tax for the top five per cent of earners as well as increasing tax on private medical insurance.
Measures will also be introduced to secure generic versions of patented medicines at affordable prices – including the creation of a new publicly – owned generic drugs manufacturer to supply better value medicines to the NHS.
This election is a fight for the future of our NHS.
It’s a fight for each and every one of us in every community.
A fight for a fully funded NHS, a National Care Service, an end to privatisation. More doctors, more nurses. The health of every child first. Free prescriptions, the best quality care for all and a public and universal NHS, this is what we strive for. The next labour government will rebuild our NHS.
Rodney Sadd
TU Delegate for the South Holland & The Deepings CLP
