Labour And The NHS

Labour thinks that the NHS is a vote-winner for them, or, as Patricia Hewitt says, "Health is a Labour issue. It always has been, and it always will be."

After 10 years of Labour, there is a lot wrong with our NHS and our wider approach to health in society.

The Green Party is particularly concerned at the number of public service workers who suffer extreme stress and end up leaving their posts. We now face the irony of stressed staff trying to heal stressed people.

Much of the NHS budget is spent treating cancer, mental illness and heart disease -- symptoms of our increasingly stressed and polluted way of life. We would be in favour of more preventative healthcare, short term actions for long term health and savings.

Led by Darren Johnson on the London Assembly, the Green Party is championing the right of Londoners to have clinics within walking distance of their homes. Green MEPs Jean Lambert and Caroline Lucas are fighting to prevent Britain's health services from being forced open to international competition and privatisation.

Finally, we need to build a partnership between government, public sector workers and the communities they serve. That doesn't mean wasting our money by paying a private company £240m to provide a hospital that could have been built for £60m less on the NHS. Health care needs to be free at the point of use, including prescriptions, eye tests and dental treatment. Greens believe that the health service should be properly funded from higher levels of tax on higher incomes.