The Health and Social Care Bill should be amended to give the National Commissioning Board statutory responsibility for strategic commissioning, argues a new report for the King’s Fund.

The report says there is a need for strong strategic commissioning to reconfigure services such as cancer, cardiac, stroke, and renal services across large geographical areas. The report says GP led consortiums are unlikely to fill the gap once strategic health authorities are abolished and that the new National Commissioning Board should be given the statutory powers and the capability to perform this role effectively.

Keith Palmer, former chair of Barts and the London NHS trust and a senior associate at the Nuffield Trust, carried out a detailed analysis of the reconfiguration of acute hospital services in southeast London and highlights the lessons …