Doctoring the Reforms
Eighteen months ago, the Government launched the most radical reform ever of the NHS. It wanted to turn a E20 billion state monolith into an internal market which would offer its
'customers', the patients, a better service, better choice, and better value for money. But now the crash programme of reform is running into trouble.
Doctors, and even some civil servants, believe that the plans are being rushed through and may prove unworkable in practice.
John Ware asks whether, with an election looming, the Government is now losing its nerve and has decided to doctor its own reforms.
Producer Francesca Kirby-Green Editor Mark Thompson