Healthcare in England is facing a very difficult moment similar to its “big transition” when the 2001 NHS Plan introduced targets on waiting times for hospital treatment, the former NHS chief executive, Nigel Crisp, has said.

Chairing a conference on leadership and the NHS reforms, Lord Crisp, who was chief executive of the NHS in England from 2000 to 2006, said, “Like then, it feels very uncertain, but there are glimmers of hope.” He said his own view is that the Health and Social Care Bill now in front of the House of Lords is “deeply flawed.”

Summarising speakers’ themes, Lord Crisp asked whether patients …