Congratulations on being one of the few commentators to correctly state that NHS Commissioning Board was formed by the Lansley reforms. The organisation was unhappy with being only first amongst equals with clinical commissioning groups at a local level.
Simon Stevens' well connected endeavours rapidly promoted NHSCB with the alias NHS England. And the major point of the reforms was conceded. This name only became official in 2022 at the same time as ICBs came in to being, see the first section of the 2022 NHS act. During the brief 3 year history of NHS England, it has not been as effective as its predecessor organisation. Whilst promoting the 2022 Act I asked the CEO if structural reform of CCGs was needed and she said that the structures were less important than the functions. However the structural reforms do damage the functioning of the organisation taking from four to 10 years to recover. During this time it is likely that large hospital trusts will successfully consolidate their control of local systems and their power will reconstruct the carefully constructed integration between multiple organisations developing along the lines laid out in 2016.
Without an alternative and compelling narrative as to future function, control is most likely to be determined by financial flows rather than population need, public health design or clinical requirements.
Rapid Response:
Re: NHS England: divorced, beheaded, died
Dear Editor,
Congratulations on being one of the few commentators to correctly state that NHS Commissioning Board was formed by the Lansley reforms. The organisation was unhappy with being only first amongst equals with clinical commissioning groups at a local level.
Simon Stevens' well connected endeavours rapidly promoted NHSCB with the alias NHS England. And the major point of the reforms was conceded. This name only became official in 2022 at the same time as ICBs came in to being, see the first section of the 2022 NHS act. During the brief 3 year history of NHS England, it has not been as effective as its predecessor organisation. Whilst promoting the 2022 Act I asked the CEO if structural reform of CCGs was needed and she said that the structures were less important than the functions. However the structural reforms do damage the functioning of the organisation taking from four to 10 years to recover. During this time it is likely that large hospital trusts will successfully consolidate their control of local systems and their power will reconstruct the carefully constructed integration between multiple organisations developing along the lines laid out in 2016.
Without an alternative and compelling narrative as to future function, control is most likely to be determined by financial flows rather than population need, public health design or clinical requirements.
Competing interests: No competing interests