Ellen Kenyon-Peers, Waltham Forest Socialist Party
Recent figures emerged showing £14 billion a year could be saved if NHS patients were a healthy weight. It’s all too easy for the anti-worker capitalist media to point the finger at chicken-shop dinners and ‘lazy’ individuals; how can we stay healthy when our local swimming pools are closing and there’s a cost-of-living crisis?
Food inflation is currently sitting at 16.5%, with ‘essentials’ like pasta and bread increasing by as much as 49%. A damning report published by the Food Foundation showed healthy food choices are up to three times as expensive as ones high in fat and sugar – is it any wonder we’re struggling with an obesity pandemic?
The Tories have had ample opportunity to increase free school meal provision – rejecting bills in 2020 and again in 2022 to extend the programme to more pupils. Starmer’s Labour has ruled out an extension to all primary school children.
It’s not just access to healthy food, barriers to keeping physically fit are widespread, especially in poorer neighbourhoods. After years of cuts to local budgets, is it any wonder that 40% of council areas are at risk of swimming pool and leisure centre closures? Not to mention the cuts to after-school sports clubs, which is already having a massive impact on the physical and mental health of young people – who now have a 1-in-4 chance of developing a mental health disorder.
Housing
The rise in unsafe social housing, from slum landlords and increasingly unscrupulous housing associations, has come to light in recent months after the inquest into the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak, following his exposure to deadly mould. Tories have taken measures to pass the blame onto tenants. But how can we heat our homes when our energy bills have increased by thousands of pounds a year, all whilst energy company fat cats rake in £170 billion in ‘excess’ profits?
Widening the recipient pool for routine vaccinations for seasonal illnesses such as flu would also alleviate pressure on NHS beds, which sit at around a 95% occupancy rate in England. This is compounded by the huge number of hospital beds occupied by patients that no longer need them, but cannot be moved due to the ongoing crisis in social care.
The British Medical Association estimates that a further £7.9 billion is needed to keep up with cost pressures and demand, with approximately 47% of over-50s currently living with unmet care needs. As many as half a million vacancies urgently need to be filled, but poverty wages and long hours, coupled with Tory anti-migrant policies, are only serving to drive more workers away from the sector.
We are also still facing the residual impact of a global pandemic which the capitalist economy failed to prepare for. Warnings were ignored and a decade of austerity undermined services’ ability to cope. Socialist planning would have meant acting earlier, preparing better and conducting research without the goal of profit.
Healthy free school meals; free to access leisure facilities; ensuring everyone has access to a safe, healthy and warm home – all should be possible in the world’s sixth-richest country. All could be paid for using even a fraction of the vast wealth hoarded by the super-rich.
