The document analyzes and summarizes the main UK political parties' plans for health care, including the Conservatives pledging more funding and resources for the NHS, Labour promising £30 billion in extra NHS funding, and the Greens and Lib Dems advocating for an publicly funded healthcare system free at the point of access. It also notes experts believe the NHS will have to do more with less funding and resources due to increasing costs and demand.

1. Health and the General Election 2017
Essentials guide to the parties’
health plans and pledges

2. Author
Our Senior Associate and subject matter expert in
Health Services Improvement, Mark Jennings, has
analysed the main political parties’ general
election manifestos (some are 125+ pages) and
summarised the health-related policies and
pledges in this Essential Guide.

3. We will give the NHS what it
needs to provide exceptional
healthcare, whenever, wherever.
 A pledge for the NHS to have the resources it needs including money, people, buildings and technology.
 An increase in NHS spending by a minimum of £8 billion in real terms over the next five years.
 Backing for STPs and for making modifications to the internal market if it is delaying implementation and / or the
integration of care.
 Aspiration to be the first nation in the world to provide a truly 7 day healthcare service.
 Protection for 140,000 staff from EU countries so they can continue working in the NHS and caresystem.
 Increased cost recovery of NHS care costs from non UK residents.
 GP encouraged to work in larger groups and a new GP contract to help develop integrated primarycareservices.
 New hospital consultant contract reflecting current nature of hospital work.
 A pledge to give definitive cancer diagnosis within 28 days by 2020.
 18 weeks referral to treatment and 95% / 4 hours urgent care targets to remain.
 Regulation of healthcare professions to be overhauled.
 Include the value of family homes in means test for people receiving social care at home with cost of care to be capped and
people guaranteed to keep £100,000 of assets.

4.  £ 30bn in extra funding for the NHS over the next parliament (actually a recurring £6bn increase in annual funding)
paid for by increasing income tax for the highest earners, increasing tax on private medical insurance and halving
the fees paid to management consultants.
 A new Office for Budget Responsibility for Health overseeing health spending.
 Guarantee of access to treatment within 18 weeks of referral (resulting in 1 million people being taken off waiting
lists) and 4 hours for urgent care.
 A new quality, safety and excellence regulator to be known as ‘NHS Excellence’.
 An immediate guarantee of the rights of EU staff working in the NHS.
 Free car parking at NHS Hospitals in England for patients, staff and visitors funded by increasing the tax on private
medical insurance premiums.
 Scraping the NHS 1% pay cap and returning power to the pay review bodies.
 A new legal duty on Secretary of State and NHS England to limit private profits from NHS services.
 Mental health budgets will be ring-fenced all children in secondary schools have access to a counselling service.
 Halt STP plans and ask local people to participate in the redrawing of plans with a focus on patient need rather
than available finances.
The NHS is Labour’s proudest
achievement and we will make
sure it continues by meeting
21st century patient needs.

5.  Saving the NHS by putting a penny in the pound on income tax to give the NHS and social care services an annual
£6bn ‘cash injection’.
 Direct investment to priority areas: primary care (and other out-of-hospital care), mental health and public health.
 Transforming mental health care with waiting time standards to match those in physical health care.
 Better integration of health & social care with budgets fully pooled by 2020.
 A new statutory independent budget monitoring agency for health & care.
 Guarantee the rights of all NHS and social care service staff who are EU nationals to stay in the UK.
 Promote easier access to GPs, expanding evening and weekend opening to meet the needs of local patients,
encouraging online, phone and Skype appointments, encouraging GPs to work together in federations.
 More emphasis on keeping people healthy including a National Wellbeing Strategy, which puts better health and
wellbeing for all at the heart of government policy.
The NHS has been the envy of
the world, but it is now a facing
a crisis and we urgently need to
increase its funding.

6.  Pledge to put the NHS before foreign aid.
 An additional £9 billion a year by 2021/22. An additional £2 billion for social care funded by savings from the
foreign aid budget.
 A ‘crackdown’ on foreign nationals using the NHS. Only British citizens or foreign nationals who have paid UK taxes
for at least five consecutive years will be eligible for non-urgent NHS care. Others will need evidence of medical
insurance before being allowed to enter the UK.
 Guaranteed right to remain in UK for NHS workers from other EU countries.
 Increase medical school places to deliver 10,000 more GPs by 2025.
 Abolish the CQC as it has caused a ‘vicious circle of misery’.
 Scrap appraisal and revalidation burden that goes beyond GMC requirements.
 Remove 1% pay cap for frontline NHS workers earning less than £35,000.
 Scrap hospital parking fees.
The NHS is funded by the
British people and should be
for the British people.

7.  An NHS Reinstatement Act to roll back privatisation so that all health and dental services are always publicly
owned and provided free at the point of access.
 Closing the NHS spending gap to ensure that everyone can access a GP and hospitals can reduce waiting times.
 Spending on mental health care to be brought in line with spending on physical well-being.
All Green Party policiesare
designed to promotethe health
of individuals,communities
andsociety.

8.  The NHS should be a safe, comprehensive, publicly funded, publicly delivered, and publicly accountable integrated
healthcare system, committed to continuous improvement for all of its patients and participants. This has been
shown to be the fairest and most cost-efficient way to deliver healthcare.
 The creation of a private market within the NHS which siphons off public resources for private profit has hugely
increased costs and bureaucracy within the NHS and has reduced services to patients.
 The NHS is our shared commitment to a fair society, not a personal insurance policy to be haggled over or “topped
up” by out-of-pocket excess charges.
The NHS is more than just a
structure for the delivery of
healthcare. It is also a social
institution that reflects national
solidarity.

9. Who needs party policies, pledges
and legislation? I’m structuring and
running the NHS in the best
interests of patients, staff and
taxpayers. The politicians will
eventually catch up!

10.  The NHS remains tax funded and free at the point of care.
 There will be more money but much less than the growth in demand and costs; the NHS will have to do more with
less.
 An inexorable move towards a 7-day NHS for all services.
 More targets and scrutiny.
 GP and primary care services will need to be organised and delivered at a larger scale than present.
 The NHS will need to help patients and populations ‘self-care’ to relieve pressure on the system
 NHS staff from the EU will have rights protected but no clarity about future recruitment post Brexit
 A continued emphasis on making MH parity of esteem a reality.

11. Get in touch
• Mark Jennings
• Managing Director, Oxyjenn Consulting Ltd
• markjennings@oxyjennconsulting.co.uk
• +44 (0)777 1996410
• Twitter: @MarkJenningsNHS