What activists need to remember about Labour’s NHS rescue plan

Labour’s big policy announcement today puts the NHS crisis front and centre. Jonathan Ashworth and John McDonnell will deliver speeches in London this morning unveiling a £26bn real-terms “NHS rescue plan” to “deliver real change for patients”. The boost involves a 4.3% spending increase over four years, and means Labour has promised over £6bn more than the Tories have offered so far. But don’t just look at the headline figures and the slogan – it is crucial to consider and remember what exactly this funding will be going on.

If you’re regularly hitting the Labour doorstep, this is what you need to know. Labour’s plan for the NHS will ensure quality care: guaranteeing a greater priority for mental health than ever before, with school counselling services, community mental health hubs for young people, community services for severe mental illness and 24/7 crisis care. Through a green new deal, it will rebuild the NHS: making inpatient settings safe for patients, investing in beds to end out-of-area placements, increasing the numbers of CT and MRI scanners to meet the OECD average. It will also help everyone by helping NHS workers: restoring a training bursary for nurses, expanding GP training places, investing in mental health support for staff.

Ashworth will declare today that the upcoming general election is “about millions on waiting lists and hundreds of thousands who’ve waited on trolleys under the Tories”. It is a Brexit election, but it is also a climate election, an NHS election, a fight against austerity election. I would bet that every person who meets a Labour activist between now and December 12th will have recently had a disappointing, upsetting or downright shocking experience of the NHS – whether that is simply waiting too long for an appointment, or a series of much more serious failings. And that can be attributed to a lack of basic compassion from those currently in charge. The urgency of Labour’s plan cannot be overstated.