The geeks must quash the believers in gut instinct
The debate is over the future of competition in the NHS and it has profound implications for the future health of the nation, write Julian Le Grand and Zack Cooper
The NHS is facing its biggest structural upheaval in decades, with family doctors given more control of spending to buy patient care, at a time when the service is under pressure to make efficiency savings
Labour lose a Commons vote to delay the bill until publication of risks, allowing a bill that was amended more than 1,000 times to finally pass
Focus on government refusal to publish risk assessment
Reform seen as opportunity for joint hospital ventures
Legal advisers warn over use of taxpayers’ money
Family doctors organisation has been strong opponent of reform
The debate is over the future of competition in the NHS and it has profound implications for the future health of the nation, write Julian Le Grand and Zack Cooper

Whitehall officials fear meltdown. There is still time – just – for the government to change course on NHS reform, writes Philip Stephens
Many recoil in horror when words such as efficiency and profit are even mentioned in the field of healthcare, writes Iain Martin
UK government should drop a misconceived bill
Lansley’s regulator will be responsible for foundation trusts, helping set the prices they get and deciding how much competition they face

What has emerged can be described as a dangerous hotchpotch of measures certain to bring tears to patients and politicians, writes Philip Stephens

Few things frighten politicians more than campaigns against closure of constituency accident and emergency or maternity units, writes Philip Stephens
The risk was always that compromises would undermine the main goals of the health service reform – and, sadly, that seems to have happened
This threatens to taint the cause of modernisation across the public services. The poll tax was probably the last example of a policy as badly conceived as it was politically self-destructive, writes Philip Stephens