The Green Party has called on the next government to invest an extra £50bn a year to rescue an NHS at ‘breaking point’, financed by taxes on the top 1% of earners.
Green parliamentary candidate for Reading Central, David McElroy said: “We can’t hide from the fact that its all about money. We need a massive cash injection to boost NHS salaries and improve social care, and we need to fight privatisation in the NHS.”
The Royal Berks Hospital is in Reading Central, where Labour have 21 councillors, the Greens are in second place with eight, the Conservatives have three and the Lib Dems have zero.
Above: At the recent council elections only Labour and Greens elected councillors in Reading Central.
Dave continued: “Years of underfunding and sneaky privatisation plans have left our NHS just like our hospital buildings – crumbling around our ears. Our nurses, our doctors, cleaning staff, administrators, all the people that look after us, need real hope now. The two old dinosaur parties are offering nothing but fantasy plans to end the crisis. More private sector, even longer hours and squeeze even more patients into overcrowded wards.
“Putting everything you’ve got on a gamble for growth, like a kind of Liz Truss Mark II, won’t cut waiting lists. You can’t build a health service for the future without raising the money you actually need through fairer taxation, as well as getting rid of profit from healthcare.
“The Green Party is proposing increasing funding for the English NHS by £30bn a year by 2030. We need that money to raise NHS frontline workers’ salaries, ensure rapid GP access, provide same-day urgent care, and guarantee everyone an NHS dentist.
“In Reading, it’s the Green Party who have long campaigned for access to a dentist for everybody. People are pulling out their own teeth – it’s a scandal.
“I’ll pledge to work for practical solutions that offer real hope and real change, support our amazing staff, and invest in the RBH to defend our NHS, not sell it off to new chums in big business.
“It’s weird – these are just very mainstream proposals that everyone will agree with, but we’ve spent so long under governments that have eroded the NHS that we’ve got used to it. It’s time for real change.
“A vote for Green in Reading tells a new government what they need to know – that we care, we have a voice, and we’re determined to support real change for the future of everyone.”