Health Think Tank Calls NHS Reform 'Strategic Error' of UK Government

“Historians will not be kind in their assessment of the coalition government’s record on NHS reform. The first three years were wasted on major organisational changes when the NHS should have been concentrating on growing financial and services pressures. This was a strategic error,” The King's Fund chief executive Chris Ham was quoted as saying in the report.

Major health care reform was introduced in Britain under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and came into being April 1, 2013, pushed through by Andrew Lansley, the UK Health Secretary from 2010 to 2012.

However, according to the King Fund’s report, the NHS changes were in error and structurally “incomprehensible.”

The report also criticized UK Prime Minister David Cameron for backing the reforms, stating that the changes actually made the British healthcare system weaker and did not improve patient services.

NHS is the UK publicly funded health care system. It comprises NHS England, Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland, NHS Scotland and NHS Wales. Its largest unit, NHS England, has almost 1.3 million employees.