Abstract
When the Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition government was formed after the 2010 general election, it might reasonably have been thought that the existing institutions (inherited from New Labour’s market reforms) would be eminently usable by the new government, with the new Health Secretary, Conservative Andrew Lansley, having shadowed his new portfolio since 2004. This was not the case. I trace the controversy around the White Paper produced by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley. It led to dismay on the part of the Liberal Democrat partners in the Coalition government as well as many in the NHS. Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron was ‘caught on the hop’, having taken his eye off the ball being rolled by his Health Secretary. The political compromises mediated through the NHS Future Forum, a face-saving device to change the bill during a ‘pause’ in its legislative passage, were incoherent in terms of policy consistency, and consisted in making soothing noises at the level of rhetoric. The 2012 Health and Social Care Act was a major hostage to fortune, which was later disowned and reversed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
BBC Radio 4. (2014) File on 4. November 12, 8pm.
Bloor, K., et al. (2005). NHS management and administration staffing and expenditure in a national and international context. York University (embargoed by the Department of Health).
Conservative Party. (2007). NHS autonomy and accountability: Proposals for legislationConservative Party. www.conservatives.com/pdf/NHSautonomyandaccountability.pdf
Curry, N., et al. (2008). Practice-based commissioning: Reinvigorate, replace, or abandon? King’s Fund.
Department of Health. (2007). World class commissioning. DoH.
Department of Health. (2010). Equity and excellence. DoH.
Department of Health. (2011). NHS future forum: Final report. DoH.
House of Commons Select Committee on Health. (2010). Commissioning. The Stationery Office.
House of Commons Select Committee on Health. (2011). Commissioning: Further issues. The Stationery Office.
King’s Fund. (1998). Evaluation of total purchasing pilots. King’s Fund.
Labour Party. (1995). Renewing the NHS. The Labour Party.
McLachlan, G., & Maynard, A. (Eds.). (1982). The public/private mix for health. Nuffield Trust.
Paton, C. (2006/2017). New labour’s state of health. Routledge
Paton, C. (2010, April 15). Commissioning in the English NHS. British Medical Journal.
Paton, C. (2012, March). Competition and integration: The NHS future forum’s confused consensus. British Journal of General Practice (Lead Editorial).
Paton, C. (2014, June). Garbage-can policy and neo-liberal ideology: 25 years of redundant re-form in the English NHS. Social Policy and Administration, 48(3), 319–342.
Paton, C. (2016). The politics of health policy reform in the UK: England’s permanent revolution. Palgrave Macmillan.
Public Servant (Feature). (2012, September 13). Mid staffs, the NHS and the future: Complacency in the teeth of collapse (analysis by Calum Paton). Public Servant.
The Stationery Office. (2012). The Health and Social Care Act. TSO.
Timmins, N. (2012). Never again. King’s Fund and Institute for Government.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Paton, C. (2022). The Coalition Government’s Blunder: The Lansley Reform. In: NHS Reform and Health Politics in the UK. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99818-9_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99818-9_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-99817-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-99818-9
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)