Yet another big shake-up for the NHS – will this one do any good?

The government plans to “take back control” of the health service, ending the market-based reforms and reintroducing central command and control. Is this a good idea?

Matt Hancock
Health secretary Matt Hancock: not a man obviously in need of more powers
(Image credit: © Geoff Pugh/Shutterstock)

What is the government proposing?

Two big things, both of which amount to a dismantling of the last big NHS reorganisation, Andrew Lansley’s Health and Social Care Act of 2012. First, the government’s white paper details a series of organisational and technical policy changes aimed at encouraging better collaboration between different NHS organisations, and more “joined-up” provision to patients.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

Simon Wilson’s first career was in book publishing, as an economics editor at Routledge, and as a publisher of non-fiction at Random House, specialising in popular business and management books. While there, he published Customers.com, a bestselling classic of the early days of e-commerce, and The Money or Your Life: Reuniting Work and Joy, an inspirational book that helped inspire its publisher towards a post-corporate, portfolio life.   

Since 2001, he has been a writer for MoneyWeek, a financial copywriter, and a long-time contributing editor at The Week. Simon also works as an actor and corporate trainer; current and past clients include investment banks, the Bank of England, the UK government, several Magic Circle law firms and all of the Big Four accountancy firms. He has a degree in languages (German and Spanish) and social and political sciences from the University of Cambridge.