Lib Dems to use ‘remain bonus’ for health and social care crisis
Alan Hilliar has backed Lib Dem plans to invest an extra £35bn in the NHS and social care over the next five years - funded by the 'remain bonus' from staying in the EU, and an extra penny on income tax.
Social care funding has been cut by billions in the past 10 years - Hampshire County Council alone announced in September it is having to make a further savings of £43m by 2021 with a loss of 120 jobs.
Alan said, "The NHS faces of increasing patient demand because of an ageing population and pressures created by cuts in social care services. The service faces a major crisis in staff recruitment - which has been made worse by Brexit.
"People in desperate need of social care without private means are not getting it and many others have to sell their homes or get family to pay for their care. It's all wrong. A plan to tackle the crisis has been promised by the Tories for four years but we are still waiting - and even before that the Lib Dems were proposing an all-party commission to find a solution."
The Lib Dem plan involves:
- £12.2 billion extra for the NHS
- £12.9 billion extra for social care
- £3.9 billion to tackle NHS understaffing
- £3.2 billion for public health
Alan added, "It's time to stop the Tory cuts and start properly funding our health and social care services."