Let’s make GREEN points on every issue

This is a guest post from David Taylor. David was a very early member of the Green Party and a principal speaker from 1994-97. He's concerned that the party isn't making enough impact.

"It has been noticeable that we haven’t been scoring the points we should have on the ecological crises, or attacking other parties for failing to support life (a better word than ‘environment’). We have missed report after report that we could have responded to. In consequence the media turn to NGOs and not to us for comment, and thereby miss the political points which need to be heard.

The negligence and, we presume, ignorance of mainstream politicians when dealing with these issues makes them vulnerable. We can win arguments again and again when we come from a green perspective.  And ecological points can be made on most of the governmental or social issues of the day.

Here are sorts of the things we should be saying:-

• Terrorism: We should be pointing out how many more people are suffering and dying from air pollution each year – asthma, emphysema etc.
• Refugee crisis: We should be pointing out that climate change and environmental degradation are among of the causes. Syria, for instance, experienced 20 years of drought before the war began. This was almost certainly the worst drought in 500 years.
• EU referendum: We could be stronger on the huge benefit of the EU’s environmental directives and exposing, in ardent terms, the ignorance of the outers who deny climate change. It was, for example, the EU that cleaned up our beaches.
• Environmental damage: We should expose the culpability of the WTO and corporations for ecological collapse. For instance, after yesterday’s report on massive coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef we should have attacked and publicly embarrassed the Australian government for its support of coal mining.
• NHS:  We need to make the most basic, and popular, green point of all; that we are spending more and more on the NHS (and building up greater deficits) because people are getting sicker and sicker (cancer, diabetes etc), more stressed and more obese. Tackling these health issues (on which all mainstream parties have shocking records of inaction) with controls on junk food, a reduced working week, tighter controls on environmental pollution etc will do far more to save money than forcing junior doctors to work more at weekends. We might even win over Jamie Oliver...

The beauty of these arguments is that they cut across the Left-Right spectrum and will attract broad support. 

There is one key concept to get across. The Green message is not about ‘the environment’. What a counter-productive word that has been! It’s about ‘life’ and ‘health’. We should just stop using the word ‘environment’. It is ranked way down the list of priorities for most of the electorate and makes people think of whales and litter. We are the party for Life and for Living... That has resonance."

Chase Farm Hospital: Joan Ryan moans about progress

Last night the Royal Free held a meeting in Enfield town to update us on the rebuilding of Chase Farm Hospital (CFH). The news is good. Despite the extraordinary haste progress is on or even a little ahead of the plan and demolition of unwanted buildings will start in September.

The design has changed from a rectangular block with two courtyards to a spine with fingers - said to be more flexible. Also, and following, public pressure and advice from clinicians, the ground floor of the Highlands block will be used for rehab rather than being mothballed.

The new hospital will have 8 operating theatres, 48 inpatient surgical beds and 44 rehab beds. That's less than the current number of beds (c130) though hospital director Fiona Jackson tells me that some of those are unfunded - but not unused. Jackson stressed that medicine is seeing a rapid shift from in to out patient treatment so that fewer beds will be needed.

The Royal Free team has reserved an area of 800 sq m for a GP surgery but will only build the surgery if commissioned by the Clinical Commissioning Group ( CCG). Negotiations are in hand. This is clearly unfortunate but there's still time to get it right.

The Royal Free wants the new hospital to be embedded in the local community. The hospital gardens, shop, pharmacy and GP surgery (if any) will be immediately accessible from main entrance and open to local residents.

I raised the issue of disease prevention, making the point that the severity of many of today's medical problems, obesity and diabetes for instance, are strongly affected by lifestyle choices. Fiona Jackson made positive noises about smoking, fitness and fruit. Chocolate bars are no longer displayed next to the shop till and part of the restaurant will become an exercise area.

The only sour note was struck by Joan Ryan, MP, who, as at the Planning Committee in April, seemed determined to find fault with the plans. Ryan made a speech when asked to ask questions. She spoke at excessive length and generally muddied the waters on beds, space, nurses pay, etc. I thought the Royal Free's answers were pretty good.

She also repeated her claim that new CFH will be just a 'cottage hospital'. There's no formal definition of the term 'cottage hospital' but actual cottage hospitals typically have less than 20 beds; not the 92 planned for the new CFH. There was strong hostility to her from some people in the audience.

Ryan seems determined to discredit the plans and won't let the facts get in the way. Come on Joan, the election is over.

I am number 922!

No, I'm not in gaol! That's the number of the certificate given to me by local 38 Degrees members at last Friday's hustings to show that I've received the NHS petition. It's an odd feeling - I'm more used to being an activist for change than one of those being lobbied!

Of course I welcome the petition which asks me to defend the NHS, resist privatisation and provide sufficient funding - all of which is both my personal commitment and the policy of my party.

Our priority in the new parliament should be to reverse the current privatisation and restore the duty of the Secretary of State to provide a universal NHS. You know, like we used to have.

But then there are major challenges for the NHS:

• We should give mental health parity with physical health.
• We should integrate social and medical care
• We should ensure that treatment is as good at weekends as on weekdays.

In the long run (and this got applause at the hustings) we need to address the causes of ill health which include poor diet, lack of exercise, economic inequality and excessive consumption of alcohol.

I'd like to believe that good policies on food, housing transport, tax, air quality, etc., would reduce the need for spending on treating disease. But I don't. I think they will reduce the need to increase that spending. The growth is driven by our longer lives and the ingenuity of doctors and scientists in devising new treatments - which in turn extend our lives.

Getting good at dying

This is a guest post by a local voter who has worked in a major London NHS hospital since 2011. He worked first as a Healthcare Assistant on the wards and is now an Emergency Department Assistant (EDA) in Accident & Emergency. 

He writes: 
As you're the Green Party candidate for Enfield North, I'm writing to you to ask you for your thoughts on recent attempts by organisations, such as Dignity in Dying, to legalise and enshrine an individual's right to choose to die under specific circumstances.

Obviously this is a sensitive and personal issue for all of us: we will all die at some point. I feel that as a nation we are prone to ignoring this very pertinent fact of life, to the detriment of our friends, family and loved ones. A more pragmatic reason for me to write to you about this is because I work in healthcare. I've seen people die, whether they were young or old, sick or (apparently) healthy. Death is indiscriminate and we do ourselves a disservice when we think of it as an enemy to be fended off at all costs.

I have looked after patients in the late stages of dementia, whose families have insisted that they be given feeding tubes when they are no longer capable of chewing and swallowing proper food. This is not a common occurrence, but it happens. These patients cannot communicate, move or control their bodily functions. Do they know what they're experiencing? Do they have a concept of time passing, as they lie there being drip-fed and hydrated by artificial means? I honestly couldn't tell you. What I can tell you is that being fed through a PEG feed gives a patient constant loose stool, which inevitably leads to them having to be turned and cleaned up with regularity, as well as extreme discomfort.

The NHS will proclaim an adherence to 'dignity in care' until they're blue in the face. Take a moment to consider the above scenario, to imagine what healthcare workers have to do to keep that individual clean, pressure-sore free and, for lack of a better word, 'healthy'. Perhaps I misunderstand the concept of dignity, but I cannot find any of it there. I can apply the word 'abuse' more readily to that situation than 'dignity'. The suffering is needless, sad and preventable.

This is an extreme example, but I want you to understand how the current attitudes towards death in our country have encouraged things to happen that are at best questionable, and at worst reprehensible. We do not die well in the UK, because most of us choose to reject the idea that death is inevitable. Many of us will die in hospital, surrounded by strangers and alone. Maybe in pain, maybe not. Maybe in our sleep, maybe not. I won't list the ways in which I've seen lives end, but you should understand that they are numerous and for the most part very unpleasant indeed.

We do our best in the NHS to look after those whose death is imminent, to give them relief from any pain or discomfort. Everything short of giving patients a choice. Sometimes a patient gets lucky and is able to go home and die, supported by their friends and relatives, but these instances are few and far between.

I'm 29-years-old and I don't take my life for granted. I never have. Before I worked in the NHS I was attempting to join the forces, and I certainly didn't assume that - in the event that I was successful and made it to combat zones overseas - I would survive because of my youth and physical fitness. After three and a half years in the NHS, I have seen enough to confirm it doesn't matter how young or healthy we are. We will all die of something. It is only right that we be given the means to choose, if possible and desirable, how we experience those final heartbeats.

A few weeks ago the well-loved and respected Sir Terry Pratchett died in his home, surrounded by his family. He was a leading voice in the campaign to change the law on Assisted Dying and was often quoted saying, "It's time we learned to get as good at dying as we are at living."
 
For those who would rather die when it is "their time", I endorse their decision and our current framework can cater to that. For those of us who want to choose when we die the current system is woefully inadequate. 

Some campaigns I support

Since becoming a candidate I have agreed to support the following causes (sorry for lack of detail!). I've also offered qualified support to a number of others:

• CND's opposition to replacing Trident.
• CAMRA's manifesto (beer and pubs)
• Crisis' No One Turned Away (homelessness)
• Cancer Research's Cross Cancer Out campaign
• Barnado's and others A Stitch in Time campaign
• The Royal Statistical Society;'s Data Manifesto
• The Public Service Users Bill
• Traidcraft
• The Frack Free promise (FoE and Greenpeace)
• The League Against Cruel Sports' five animal welfare calls.
• The Living Streets Manifesto
• Compassion in World Farming
• Breast Cancer Campaign
• The OneKind pledge
• The Campaign for the Preservation of Rural England's manifesto.
• The Local Goverbnm,ent Association's four points
• The RSPB's I'm Backing Bob campaign
• The Disability Benefits Consortium's 5 asks
• The CTC
• The Terrence Higgins Trust
• The Empty Homes Agency
• The LGBT Whip
• London Cycling Campaign's demand to remove TSRGD
• The Tibet Society's demand for human rights for Tibet.
• The ASI

Answering my mail: The NHS

Like every candidate I've had scores of e-mails about the NHS. (Thanks 38 Degrees!) Every one expresses fears about its future under the coalition. They think that the creation of an internal 'market' (by Labour) and the obligation to allow private firms to bid for contracts (by the coalition) will worsen service, cause fragmentation of the NHS and ultimately lead to more charges to patients. Perhaps, ultimately, to a US-style insurance system.

One correspondent listed six relatives who had suffered major medical problems. I sympathise - I owe the lives of my wife and one daughter to its work.

I don't think our fear of privatisation is paranoid. It's what Nigel Farage wants (which probably doesn't matter) but also what some Tories want (which may). So I've been happy to share my principles for the NHS:

1. I support the NHS as a public service that should be firmly in the public sector. If elected I would support the NHS Reinstatement Bill, promoted by Green MP Caroline Lucas, whose purpose is to reverse the current drive to privatise the NHS.
2. I would stop further service contracts from being given to private businesses in all but the most exceptional circumstances. I have attended meetings of the local Clinical Commissioning Group to speak against privatisation.
3. I am, like the rest of the Green Party and unlike the mainstream parties, opposed to TTIP. I would vote against it.
4. I would certainly vote more money for the NHS.

My immediate priorities, if elected, would be to address the problems created by ideological meddling by the last two governments. I would also want to sharply increase the work done on disease prevention. In the longer term I believe we need to rethink the relationships between the NHS and local authorities, especially in the care of the elderly.

You can find the party's full health policies at http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/he.html. It's worth stressing that Greens see health as more than the absence of disease and health policy as being as much concerned with diet, exercise, housing and working conditions as with healthcare in the usual sense.