Time to Shine a Light for Nurses
The public has been asked to "shine a light" today to mark International Nurses Day, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale and to recognise their efforts in fighting coronavirus. You can read more about this at
As well as recognising the effort and dedication of the people employed by the NHS it is also time to shine a light on the strength of the organisation as a whole. After years of underinvestment our hospitals are crumbling and there is now a staggering £6.5 billion backlog of repairs, meaning that many of our hospitals are not fit for purpose and lack money even to repair leaky roofs and replace windows. The workforce feels undervalued and services are struggling to retain staff. Local authorities have been starved of resources, and are using up their reserves to try and cope with the demand for social care. More than a million people are unable to get the care they need. Too often, people are left stranded in hospital after they finish their treatment and no longer need to be there because the follow-up care and support they need to go home is not available in the community.
Liberal Democrats are the only party with a long-term plan for health and care services. To tackle the immediate problem, we will:
- Raise £7 billion a year additional revenue which will be ring-fenced to be spent only on NHS and social care services. This revenue will be generated from a 1p rise on the basic, higher and additional rates of Income Tax (this revenue will be neither levied nor spent in Scotland.)
- Use this cash to relieve the crisis in social care, tackle urgent workforce shortages, and to invest in mental health and prevention services. This represents the most efficient and effective way of spending these extra resources - ensuring they will have the greatest impact on the quality of care patients receive.
- Also use £10 billion of our capital fund to make necessary investments in equipment, hospitals, community, ambulance and mental health services buildings, to bring them into the 21st century.
read more at https://www.libdems.org.uk/plan