The Autumn Budget must invest in our NHS and Care services
The previous government treated the NHS as a cost upon society which we must pay for by extracting the hard-earned income of the people of Britain. A luxury we can only afford to improve if we achieve economic growth. A service for which we must make so-called “tough choices.”
I believe that this way of thinking is entirely back-to-front. While we have become adept at counting the costs of health and care, we seem to have lost the ability to count the value. Is there not a value to ensuring children born into poverty receive medical care and mental health support early in life when they desperately need it? Is there not value in guaranteeing everyone, no matter their wealth, can enjoy quality care in their later years without fear of bankrupting their family? Far from being a national luxury only afforded to a growing economy, the NHS and our social care services are key investments that create the very growth this government claims to seek.
I see public services as long-term investments in the resiliency of the entire economy and that economy would be so much smaller without them. In reality, we cannot grow the economy with seven million people on waiting lists. Clearing those will get people back to work, free up NHS capacity, grow the economy, and contribute to tax revenues. Paying to keep our people healthy is what saves us from the much greater costs of a society without quality healthcare for all.
You can't solve a problem unless you understand what is causing it, and my training in epidemiology has shown that it’s not always the most obvious solution that is the most cost effective. In parliament, I’ve been discussing an innovative collaboration with Melbury Lodge (a dedicated mental health facility at Royal Hampshire County Hospital) and Winchester Citizens Advice which dramatically improves recovery time for inpatients receiving treatment for mental health conditions. The project provides one-to-one advice and support to inpatients on matters relating to living in the community, from relationship and financial advice to management of debt, benefits and housing issues. Their research has shown huge success, finding that for every £1 invested in the project, they can save the NHS £14.
When I spend time with the police, they tell me that between 40% and 50% of their time is taken up dealing with mental health issues which they are not properly equipped for. Investing heavily in mental health care would massively free up the police capacity to actually deal with crime.
Instead of solving systemic problems like these through smart cost-saving investments, over the last decade sticking plaster politics has tended to trump what is best for the long-term benefits of the country. We've ended up with crumbling infrastructure, depleted public services, a sluggish economy and raw sewage being poured into rivers. People are fed up with politicians who only offer meaningless three-word slogans and blustering rhetoric and they now want serious politicians who can deliver meaningful change. A harsh and uncaring Conservative government has ground us down and normalised extreme inequality and hardship.
But we're still one of the wealthiest nations on the planet. I believe we can be a country where every single person can access the physical and mental health care that they need, when they need it. We can be a country where an honest day's work pays a living wage - no one with a full-time job should be going to food banks to feed their family. And we can be a country where no child ever goes to school hungry.
If, as the Prime Minister says, we are to face "the harsh light of fiscal reality”, let us not be blinded to all but one path that lies before us. Alongside my Liberal Democrat colleagues, I'm calling for a rescue package in this Budget to boost NHS spending, invest in infrastructure, support public health services and roll out free personal care. Not by raising taxes on struggling households and small businesses, as the previous Conservative government did, but by asking big banks, oil and gas companies and tech giants, that can afford to pay a small amount of their soaring profits, to get our public services back on their feet.
It is my belief that when we commit to spending on rebuilding these services, we can be sure that the return on that investment in terms of health, well-being and long-term economic growth will far exceed the short-term costs.
Dr Danny Chambers is the Liberal Democrat MP for Winchester and currently undertakes the role of Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Mental Health).
