Health and Care
Summary
- Build a National Health and Care Service where personal care is free at the point of need.
- Make health equality our goal in Government, with an emphasis on preventative measures that improve mental health and encourage physical activity.
- Introduce a Clean Air Act and examine the case for a Junk Food Tax.
- Provide 6,000 extra healthcare professionals for Wales - 4,000 nurses, 1000 doctors and 1000 allied health professionals.
- Plan for the recovery of health and social care services from Covid-19 to: (i) Treat patients most in need, especially those with Long Covid; (ii) Support staff in dealing with ongoing stress; and (iii) Prepare for possible future pandemics.
- Deliver new diagnostic centres for cancer and other conditions to ensure early treatment.
This past year has made us all value our health and care services as never before. We have seen for ourselves the selflessness of the staff who have gone the extra mile day after day after day to keep us safe, to save lives and to care for the most vulnerable.
But we have also witnessed the frailties and unsustainability of those services, the lack of investment that led to an overdependence on the goodwill and sheer dedication of the health and care workforce.
We owe it to them now to relieve the pressure, to repay them for their commitment in our hour of need, to give them the support they need to do what they are trained to do. To care.
We must seize this moment, not only to rebuild and catch up with the backlog, but to create a new sustainability, a new robustness, in a new and transformed National Health and Care Service.