Summary
This document, “Never again? The story of the Health and Social Care Act 2012” has been published by the King’s Fund and the Institute for Government. It offers a thorough, yet surprisingly racy and entertaining, explanation of the thinking behind the Act and its troubled progress to becoming law.
“The ‘Acts’ and ‘Scenes’ are reminiscent of a Jacobean drama making this a unique piece of journalism”.
This legislation’s origins are traced back over 20 years, through the development of the 2010 Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS (White Paper), as analysed in “Liberating the NHS”, all the way to the passage of the controversial Bill this year.
The Health Secretary believes that never again – at least not in the foreseeable future – will the NHS need to undertake a similar scale of structural change. This book clarifies what Andrew Lansley, Secretary of State for Health, is hoping to achieve through NHS reforms.
“All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Then it is accepted as self-evident. We are somewhere between stages two and three at the moment. I am hoping that three will arrive before May 2015.” Andrew Lansley (paraphrasing Arthur Schopenhauer). p.146.
Reference
Timmins, N. (2012). Never again? The story of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. London: King’s Fund and the Institute for Government, July 2012.
Note: There is an accompanying online interactive NHS timeline.
