Jeremy Hunt interferes too much in day to day running of NHS, stakeholders say

England’s Department of Health must be prepared to loosen its grip on the management of the NHS and allow new organisations the freedom to perform their roles, a new survey has found.

Research from Ipsos MORI1 commissioned by the government found that many organisations within and outside the NHS thought that the department had been “maintaining more of a focus on operational issues than they had envisaged” since the Health and Social Care Act came into force in April 2013.

The architect of the act—the former health secretary, Andrew Lansley—created the arm’s length organisation NHS England (initially the NHS Commissioning Board) to oversee …