NHS reforms have produced “only limited benefits so far”

doi:10.1136/bmj.39609.486644.DB

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Zosia Kmietowicz

¹London

The government’s ambitious programme of reform for the NHS has delivered only limited benefits for patients, says a report from two healthcare watchdogs.

Unless GPs are given the support to take forward commissioning in the community “the reform programme will not provide the necessary balance of power between primary and secondary care” to succeed, says the report from the Healthcare Commission and the Audit Commission.

In 2000 the then prime minister, Tony Blair, announced a range of sweeping reforms in the NHS plan for England to deliver a more devolved health service with improved services for patients (BMJ 2000;321:317; doi: 10.1136/bmj.321.7257.317). The reforms …