Health

A PROPERLY FUNDED AND PUBLICLY OWNED NHS SCOTLAND

Our health service must always be in public hands, and must be given the resources it needs. The funding pressure on the NHS will be all the more acute as we emerge from the pandemic and have to deal with the impact the last year has had on the workforce and the backlog of cases that has inevitably been created. We must properly fund our health services so that they can meet this challenge.

SUPPORTING THE HEALTH WORKFORCE

Our health and care workers need time to heal from the pandemic, and they must be supported to do

so. We will prioritise the wellbeing of those who have worked so hard to keep us safe and well. For too long the contribution of nurses in particular has been undervalued. We support an increase in salaries for nurses of 12.5%.

We will:

• Ensure all health and social care workers have access to dedicated mental health support and counselling.
• Increase the number of funded university places for nursing students.
• Ensure access to healthy food and hydration in the workplace.
• Improve working conditions through a focus on wellbeing in the workplace, including enforceable breaks or pay when breaks are not possible.
• Support more flexible hours for healthcare staff.
• Create a bursary for student paramedics, equivalent to the Nursing and Midwifery Student Bursary.

 

PRIMARY AND COMMUNITY CARE

Primary care, including GP practices and community pharmacies, represents 90% of patient contact with the NHS and plays a central role in the health of the nation. We support the integration

of health and social care, moving care out of acute services and into the community, and recognise that this makes investing in primary and community care even more important now than ever before.

We will:

• Commit at least 11% of health spending to general practice by the end of the next Parliament.
• Build the general practice workforce to ensure that GPs and the wider practice team can offer a minimum of 15-minute appointments as standard with an appropriate mix of face-to-face, phone and virtual consultations.
• Expand practice teams to include welfare rights officers and increase the number of mental health clinicians working in general practice.
• Ensure every GP practice has a community links worker, with prioritisation given to practices in deprived areas.
• Ensure there are adequate pharmacists and they are recognised as key workers.

HEALTHY WORKPLACES

Everyone has the right to a safe workplace, and the pandemic has highlighted how far we have to go to realise this. The Scottish Greens believe health and safety should be fully devolved for as long as we are part of the UK, allowing us to build a proactive health and safety system that is appropriately enforced. We support the creation of a National Occupational Health Body within NHS Scotland that delivers a preventative agenda and supports workers, employers and Unions to address issues and ensure workplaces are safe.

CANCER AND HEART DISEASE

Cancer services must have the workforce needed to address the backlog of cases exacerbated by the pandemic. Scotland also faces considerable challenges in improving care for those with heart diseases, which has been made worse by Covid.

We will:

• Ensure a cancer workforce plan is agreed so that services can meet patient demand.
• Support research institutions to restart clinical trials.
• Increase awareness of  cancer symptoms via dedicated public information campaigns.
• Achieve a smoke free generation by 2034 through increasing investment in targeted smoking cessation programmes, communication campaigns, and a ban on smoking around schools, playgrounds and other locations used by children.
• Develop a heart disease plan focused on improving detection and diagnosis and ensuring that everyone with suspected heart disease has equitable access to timely treatment.
• Introduce a community-based detection and diagnosis programme for high blood pressure and high cholesterol

PALLIATIVE CARE

We will work to ensure dignity in death, with those in need of palliative care and their carers properly supported throughout the process.

We will:

• Introduce safe and compassionate laws that allow terminally ill adults the right to an assisted death when the time is right for them.
• Develop a national plan for palliative care, including specific measures to ensure the needs of children are met and children’s hospice care is supported.
• Introduce mandatory palliative care training for frontline health and care professionals.

DENTISTRY

The Scottish Greens will ensure equal access to dental service.

We will:

• Work with the profession to ensure the funding and workforce are available to address the backlog of cases that have been generated by the pandemic.
• Preserve the Public Dental Service, which provides oral care to groups with complex needs, such as homeless people, care home residents and disabled children.

MENTAL HEALTH

The Scottish Greens believe that everyone who needs mental health support should have quick and easy access to it. We will place mental health at the heart of our healthcare system and ensure it has parity with physical health.

We will:

• Allocate 10% of frontline health spend to mental health by 2026, providing an additional £235m funding a year.
• Prioritise providing children and young people with the dedicated mental health support they need, investing an additional £161m into Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services by 2026, and doubling the budget for community mental wellbeing service for children and young people to £30 million.
• Ensure everyone can access mental health support at their local GP practice.
• Establish a triage system in every community in Scotland so people can be quickly assessed by a mental health team and connected to the right support.
• Expand access to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Social Prescribing, Exercise Referral Schemes and Peer Support.
• Develop a long-term mental health workforce plan to ensure services can meet demand.

A NATIONAL CARE SERVICE BUILT ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Our care system is in crisis and requires a radical overhaul. The Scottish Greens will work with others in the Scottish Parliament to build a publicly owned national care service, and deliver immediate reforms to better reward and support carers.

We will:

• End competitive tendering as a first step in building a care system which is centred on people not price. We believe there is no place for profit in our care system and will look in the long term to remove the private sector from the provision of care.
• Protect local decision making and accountability in line with our principle of subsidiarity.
• Ensure that the pay and conditions of carers reflect their expertise. We support calls for social care workers to be paid at least £15 an hour.
• Recognise the value of unpaid carers and ensure they have access to the training, equipment and respite breaks they need.
• Introduce health checks and access to flexible healthcare appointments for unpaid carers

PUBLIC HEALTH AND THE PREVENTATIVE AGENDA

The Scottish Greens believe that people should be supported to live the healthiest lives possible and that prevention and early intervention is key to achieving this. We will tackle the root causes of poor health, such as poverty, smoking, drug and alcohol misuse and air pollution.

Sport and physical activity

Keeping active and participating in sport can make a positive contribution to physical and mental health. The Scottish Greens will continue to support investment in grassroots sport and address the barriers to participation.

We will:

• Deliver adequate provision of indoor sports facilities across Scotland in partnership with clubs, communities and governing bodies, including a 200 metre indoor track.
• Provide free access to sport and physical activity for children and young people.
• Ensure all public bodies offer protected time to their staff to engage in physical activity during the working day.
• Appoint a Minister for Sport.
• Provide free access to school and community hubs to children and young people.
• Develop a national strategy to encourage and support older people to participate in sport.

Drugs

Scotland has the highest rate of overdose deaths per head of population in Europe and there have been record high numbers of drug overdose deaths in each of the last 6 years. The Scottish Greens believe that this is a public health, not a criminal justice, issue. We will ensure that everyone can access the treatment they need, when they need it.

We will:

• Support the introduction of safe consumption facilities.
• Adopt a person-centred approach with a focus on drop-in services and crisis centres which are accessible and provide holistic support.
• Support alcohol and drug partnerships to develop a well-planned rehabilitation service that is integrated with other treatment services and increase the provision of residential rehabilitation.
• End unplanned discharges and ensure that drug users who leave treatment or statutory services, whether planned or unplanned, receive follow-up support.
• Work with addiction services to address the multiple stigmas which drug users often experience, and destigmatise medication assisted treatment.
• Provide same day access to opioid substitution treatment when people present for help.
• Roll out heroin-assisted treatment.
• Support efforts to achieve the World Health Organization’s target to eliminate hepatitis C as a public health concern by 2030.

Alcohol

The Scottish Greens believe that individuals have a right to be fully informed about the risks posed to their health by alcohol.

We will:

• Introduce mandatory unit, calorie and ingredient labelling and prominent health warnings on all alcohol products.
• Work to make the licensing system more transparent and accessible to local communities.
• Introduce a social responsibility levy on alcohol retailers.
• Ban outdoor alcohol advertising and advertising in public spaces and end alcohol sponsorship of sports events.

Air pollution

Air pollution causes over 2,500 early deaths in Scotland every year. It is a public health crisis and a massive strain on our NHS.

We will:

• Introduce increased monitoring of air pollution that can be communicated as health alerts to people with lung conditions.
• Launch a public health awareness campaign to help the public make positive choices.
• Introduce Low Emission Zones with immediate effect in all areas that breach air quality limits and for heavy vehicles in city centres, progressively including all motor vehicles and expanding these regulations in area and scope.

LEARN FROM THE PANDEMIC

The Scottish Government’s response to Covid has been hampered by poor planning, evidenced by a failure to quickly implement routine testing in health and care settings and problems with PPE distribution. Experts advise that pandemics will recur with increasing frequency. We will ensure that scientists have the funding, capacity and resources to tackle futurethreats.

We will:

• Launch a public inquiry into the Scottish Government’s response to the Covid pandemic.
• Review pandemic plans to ensure learning from the Covid outbreak is incorporated.
• Develop robust PPE procurement processes, put in place long-term support for a domestic manufacturing industry, and ensure stockpiles are adequate.
• Ensure provision of optimal personal protective equipment and prioritisation in testing and vaccination programmes for all health and social care staff.
• Raise awareness of the problems caused by Long Covid, ensure that there is equitable access to treatment and rehabilitation, and publish a Long Covid strategy that sets out how those affected will be supported and cared for.
• Recognise the importance of visits to those living in care homes and ensure that care homes are properly supported to enable such visits safely.

THE SCOTTISH GREENS WILL ALSO

Promote good sexual health

• Decriminalise abortion, remove the ‘two doctor rule’, and retain the provision for early medical abortions at home introduced during the pandemic.
• Ensure adequate provision of free contraception, access to sexual health clinics, family planning and advice services.
• Support HIV Scotland’s Generation Zero campaign to eliminate HIV transmission in Scotland by 2030