13/12/05 - Next steps for NHS reform

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has set out the two-year programme for the next stages of NHS reform. The Health Secretary was giving the London School of Economics Annual Health and Social Care Lecture entitled Investment and reform: transforming health and healthcare. Ms Hewitt also launched the publication of Health reform in England: update and next steps, a handbook for the local NHS on how to deliver the reforms. It sets out the framework for the reforms of the NHS.  It is the first in a series of publications building on the commitment in Creating a patient-led NHS to explain how the whole reform programme fits together. The handbook explains how the reforms are mutually reinforcing and sets out a programme of further work for 2006/07. (DH - press release)