Greens Call for the Government to be Held to Account for their Handling of the NHS During the Pandemic. By Adam Colclough
As restrictions brought in to protect public health during the pandemic are eased the Green Party has called for a public inquiry to hold the government to account for its handling of the crisis.
The party has also called for local authorities to be given control of the test and trace system. They are also calling for improved support for people who test positive and have to self-isolate.
Zoe Nicholson, a Green Party councillor in Lewes said, “Greens have always trusted in our local services. How many lives would have been saved if Matt Hancock had taken our advice and funded local public-health teams to trace and contain the coronavirus? Rather than giving wasteful contracts to his cronies who have utterly failed”.
North Staffs Green Party candidates standing in nine wards in the Newcastle-under-Lyme area have been active in campaigning to improve local health services.
A spokesperson said, “our members are active in their communities and before and during the pandemic and many have seen at first hand the impact a lack of investment in the NHS and other public services has had on the physical and mental health of some of the most vulnerable people”.
Members have written on the North Staffs Green Party website about the impact of lockdown on the mental health of young people and the barriers people living with disabilities face accessing the benefit system.
In their manifesto for Staffordshire the Green Party include a pledge to campaign for better treatment of people working in the social care sector and for more homes to be run by the county council.
The spokesman said, “care staff have been ignored for too long, the pandemic has shown just how vital a role they play; and it is more than time they were paid properly and treated with the respect they deserve”.
Nationally the Green Party are calling for a yearly boost of £6billion for NHS funding, paid for by cancelling the government’s road building scheme. They also support trades unionists campaigning for a 15% pay rise for health workers.
The party will also be campaigning for better access to mental health services to address the long-term psychological impact of the pandemic, an end to the internal market in the NHS and services to operate on a community led basis.
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas has campaigned for these priorities in parliament through introducing the NHS Reinstatement Bill.
Councillor Zoe Nicholson said, “Greens are the only party to have always stuck to the principle of a fully public and locally accountable health service. Now is a perfect opportunity for ministers to decentralize health services and give more funding and power to local authorities through a community-led healthcare system who best understand the health needs of their local communities”.
She added that this election was a perfect opportunity to elect councillors who would work to end privatization of the NHS and the internal market must be enacted- the current failure of our private sector provided test and trace service shows that profit-based healthcare does not adequately protect everyone.”