Lucy's Plan for the NHS
There is no issue closer to the hearts of local residents than our NHS. But years of Conservative under investment, looming cuts to local services and GP shortages have left people across South Derbyshire concerned for the future.
You can't help but be in awe of the heroes that kept our NHS going through the pandemic. In the face of great personal risk, they worked every hour possible to help the country in our hour of need.
NHS staff and patients have been let down by the Conservative Government and the system is in crisis. People are waiting weeks for a simple GP referral, ambulances can take hours to arrive, people are even having to do their own dentistry bcecause they can't get an appointment.
All we have had from the Conservatives is a string of broken promises. The Conservatives previously told us they could have our 24/7 A&E reinstated, it was our current MP's key election promise, but there is no sign of that happening.
South Derbyshire needs an MP who will work to fix these problems.
It is important to me to protect our NHS and making sure people get help when they need it.
Lucy Care
Lucys plan for the NHS
- Give everyone the right to see a GP or the most appropriate practice staff member within seven days, or within 24 hours if they urgently need to
- Guarantee access to an NHS dentist for everyone needing urgent and emergency care
- Take action to prevent tooth decay by:
- Providing supervised toothbrushing training for children in nurseries and schools.
- Scrapping VAT on children’s toothbrushes and toothpaste.
- Work towards a fairer and more sustainable long-term funding model for pharmacies, and build on the Pharmacy First approach to give patients more accessible routine services and ease the pressure on GPs.
- Improve early access to mental health services
- Boost cancer survival rates by:
- Introducing a guarantee that 100% of patients will be able to start treatment within 62 days from urgent referral.
- Replacing ageing radiotherapy machines and increasing their number, so no one has to travel too far for treatment.
- Recruiting more cancer nurses so that every patient has a dedicated specialist supporting them throughout their treatment.
- Help people spend more years of their life in good health
- Train, recruit and retain the doctors, nurses and other NHS staff we need
- Fix the life-threatening crisis in our ambulance services
- Implement a ten-year plan to invest in hospitals and the primary care estate to end the scandal of crumbling roofs, dangerous concrete and life-expired buildings.
- Create a new ‘Patients Charter’ to harness lived experience of patients and embed patient voice, partnership and safety standards across health and care settings
- Implement the recommendations of the Infected Blood Inquiry in full, including delivering full and fair compensation to all victims of the scandal in a timely and transparent manner.
- Introduce truly independent complaints processes and transparent monitoring of reports of sexual misconduct in the NHS.
- End the General Medical Council’s five-year rule which prevents patients raising complaints relating to matters more than five years old.
- Enable patients to leave hospital when they no longer need to be there by investing in social care and community care, as set out in chapter 7.
- Develop and implement a post-pandemic strategy for supporting people who are immunocompromised.
- Harness the benefits of new technology and digital tools for patients
- Review diagnostic provision across the NHS and implement a new ten-year Strategic Diagnostics Plan.
- Improve faster access to new and novel medicines and medical devices by seeking a comprehensive mutual recognition agreement with the European Medicines Agency.
- Combat the harms caused by drugs
- Provide a fair funding deal for hospices, including children’s hospices, recognising the valuable services they provide and saving money on hospital admissions.
More details are in the Lib Dem manifesto