NHS reforms: politicians will return to the driver’s seat

Given its slogan – “Integration and Innovation” – it is not surprising that the new white paper from the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs aims to promote the long-standing integration agenda while downgrading competition as a principle. NHS organizer.1 Many also noted that the proposals decisively tilted the balance of power towards the department and away from NHS England.23 The white paper contains a wide range of proposals and overall the transfer of power to ministers and ministry is a recurring theme.

NHS England is the most obvious loser in this general rearrangement. Since 2012, ministers have only been able to give formal instructions to NHS England once a year, as part of the NHS mandate, using a fairly laborious process. The new proposals would give ministers more power to lead NHS England both over NHS policy and over the public health tasks performed …