Analysis of the NHS White Paper

The following is a series of blog posts from Prof Paul Corrigan who was a senior health policy adviser to Tony Blair and credited with being the architect of NHS Foundation Trusts. They make an interesting read from someone who has a deep understanding of the NHS.

0. How does the political philosophy of “Liberating the NHS” work and where are the limits of this new liberation theology?

1. What is the responsibility of the National in the English NHS?

2. What is the responsibility of the National in the English NHS?

3. Who is providing health care and how are they organised?

4. What are the transactional relationships between commissioners and suppliers and how are they organised?

Here's an interesting comment from #1

admin on 20 Jul 2010 at 10:11 am


This is an important point. The resources for the NHS will only be coming from national taxation but within the White Paper the accountability will be coming from local government. This means that parliament will have the responsibility of paying for the whole of the NHS without any accountability and local government will have all the accountability but with none of the responsibility to raise payment.

If I was a local councilor I would say that the Government has to spend more money. If I was an MP I would refuse to raise any money for the NHS without some accountability to me.


The passage of the Bill through Parliament will be interesting…