Labour’s commitment to a ten year plan for the NHS is excellent news for Swindon. People raise the state of the local NHS with me all the time as it’s become a lottery in Swindon whether you can get to see a doctor within two weeks, especially as cuts at Freshbrook Surgery and the closure of Marlborough Road Surgery have put pressure on other surgeries.
Ed Miliband will today warn that our NHS, one of Britain’s most precious institutions, faces “its most perilous moment” when voters go the polls at a General Election now just 100 days away.
He will say the next government must rescue the health service from a Tory plan that has already caused crisis over the past five years – and now, if the Conservatives win a second term, threatens to leave it unrecognisable.
Labour’s commitment to a ten year plan for the NHS is excellent news for Swindon -Anne Snelgrove
Speaking immediately before Andy Burnham reveals Labour’s 10-year Plan for the NHS, Mr Miliband will herald it as a blueprint to raise standards of care and ensure the health service is sustainable in the 21st Century.
He will commit the next government to restoring the right values to the NHS, making strategic investments in staff, and delivering reforms that will improve services and save billions of pounds.
These include integrating care, placing a new emphasis on prevention, and ensuring better access to services – so patients do not end up in hospital unless they need it.
He will say Labour is determined to drive out the culture of limiting social care at home for frail, older and vulnerable to just 15 minutes, saying it is a symbol of what has gone wrong in the NHS where failure and false economies threaten the financial future of the service.
And he will outline how Labour’s 10-Year Plan will:
He will explain how:
Ed Miliband, Leader of the Labour Party, said: “When people can’t get to see their GP, they end up in A&E. When problems with mental health aren’t spotted early at school or work, they build up and end up in hospital. When elderly people can’t get the care they need at home, they are more likely to grow ill or have a fall and end up in hospital. In each and every case, it is worse for the person involved and it costs more for the NHS too. If we are going to build an NHS that meets the challenges of the 21st Century – and sustain funding for it through the 21st Century – we cannot leave parents unable get a GP appointment for their sick child, or neglect mental health, or limit social care visits for some of the most vulnerable in our communities to just 15 minutes a time. We will end these scandals because they have no place in a world class health service but also because no competent government can afford to ignore them any longer.”
“We can only join up these services when we have the right values at the heart of our NHS: care, compassion and co-operation, not competition, fragmentation and privatisation.
These aren’t the values of our National Health Service. These aren’t the values of the Labour party. These aren’t the values of the British people.”
Anne Snelgrove, Labour’s candidate for South Swindon, said: “Labour’s commitment to a ten year plan for the NHS is excellent news for Swindon. People raise the state of the local NHS with me all the time as it’s become a lottery in Swindon whether you can get to see a doctor within two weeks, especially as cuts at Freshbrook Surgery and the closure of Marlborough Road Surgery have put pressure on other surgeries.
Everyone appreciates the commitment of NHS staff who are keeping local services going through their dedication, but they are so stretched it is unsustainable to carry on like this.
Local families tell me they are also very worried about elderly relatives and the fifteen minute care culture that Swindon Borough Council introduced a few years ago.
Swindon showed the way by integrating health and social services ahead of the field, so I am confident that further integration of health services with social care will provide a much better service and also save money which can be put back into the NHS.”