The Liberal Democrats have passed a motion celebrating 70 years of the NHS and the vital work of NHS staff. 

Looking ahead to the challenges it will face in the future, we have also passed several new initiatives to tackle the challenges facing the NHS and social care and ensure they can continue delivering vital treatment and care for generations to come.

At Spring Conference in Southport, it was overwhelmingly agreed that the party would hold a review of the current capture, use and ownership of health data, with a view to making recommendations that balance the principles of assisting medical research, protecting the privacy of patients, and guarding against any unjustified concentration of data ownership.

A commitment to introducing additional resources to allow Mental Health Support Teams to be made available in all schools by 2019 was also passed.

Thirdly, to introduce a national scheme of preventative blood pressure monitoring run by community pharmacies.

Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Baroness Judith Jolly welcomed the decision of Spring Conference:

“This motion celebrates the 70 years of the excellent health care system we have benefited from in this country.”

“It is important that, going forward, we recognise the growing pressures on our NHS and social care and put measures in place to ensure our NHS can continue providing the vital care that we all rely on, for decades to come.”

“The Liberal Democrats know that this will require bold steps which is why, in addition to our commitment to get the NHS the funding it needs by raising income tax by a penny in the pound, we will also work to improve quality of care and medical research by reviewing our approach to the use of health data and fund initiatives to improve mental health and preventative care”.

Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for St. Albans Daisy Cooper, who submitted the motion, added:

“Liberal Democrats have a plan to tackle the three big challenges facing the NHS at 70: we’ll tackle funding with a ring-fenced 1p NHS and social care tax, we’ll address the staffing crisis with an “NHS passport” to guarantee the rights of 59,000 EU health workers and the re-establishment of student nurse bursaries, and we’ll empower individuals by tackling health inequalities at a community level.”

“Public support for the NHS and its founding principles are as strong as ever and as we approach the NHS’s 70th anniversary, I’m delighted that the Liberal Democrats have a plan to protect our NHS for future generations.”