Building a Fairer, Healthier Country

The NHS faces the worst crisis in its 80-year history. This is the result of deliberate Conservative under-funding that’s seen the NHS undermined and at risk of collapse, paving the way for further privatisation.

The Green Party is committed to a fully public, properly funded health and social care system, and to keeping the profit motive well away from the NHS.

Green MPs will push for:

• A year-on-year reduction in waiting lists.
• Guaranteed access to an NHS dentist.
• Guaranteed rapid access to a GP and same day access in case of urgent need.
• An immediate boost to the pay of NHS staff, including the restoration of junior doctors’ pay, to help with staff retention.

To meet these aims, we estimate that the NHS in England will require additional annual expenditure of £8bn in the first full year of the next Parliament, rising to £28bn in total by 2030. Additional capital spending of at least £20bn is needed over the next five years for hospital building and repair.

Investing in GPs and public health is key to prevention, early diagnosis and improving our quality of life, while also reducing the burden on the NHS. Green MPs will push for:

• Increasing the allocation of funding to primary medical care, with additional annual spending reaching £1.5bn by 2030.
• Restoring public health budgets to 2015/16 levels with an immediate annual increase of £1.5bn. Smoking cessation, drug and alcohol treatment and sexual health services all need to be properly funded.
• A National Commission to agree an evidenced-based approach to reform of the UK’s counter-productive drugs laws.

NHS dentistry

Green MPs will end the systematic underfunding of dentistry and the scandal of dental treatment deserts by pushing for:

• A new NHS dentists’ contract so that dentists are properly rewarded for taking on NHS patients
• Additional investment in NHS dentistry reaching £3bn a year by 2030.
• Funding for community hubs and primary care to roll-out free dental nursing for children and those on low incomes.

Mental health and neurodiversity

There’s been a dramatic rise in mental health problems in recent years, particularly among young people, with far too many unable to access help when they need it.

Elected Greens will press for:

• A legal framework that supports the rights of those struggling with their mental health to be respected and to live fulfilling lives.
• Increased funding for mental health care, putting it on an equal footing with physical health care and enabling people to access evidence-based mental health therapies within 28 days.
• A trained and paid counsellor in every school and sixth-form college.
• Readily available tailored provision to meet the needs of communities of colour, children and adolescents, older people and LGBTIQA+ communities.
• Adequate support in the school system for neurodivergent children and children with special educational needs.

Assisted dying

Elected Greens will support a change in the law to legalise assisted dying for people suffering from terminal disease who wish to avoid prolonged unnecessary suffering, if this is their clear and settled will. Proper safeguards would be put in place.

End new cases of HIV by 2030

Green MPs will work towards no more HIV transmissions by 2030, advocating for a joined-up evidence based approach, including access to the HIV prevention pill online, in pharmacies and from GP services, and renewing successful opt-out HIV testing programmes in A&Es in all areas with a high prevalence of HIV.