A few weeks ago I asked this question of the Prime Minister's rationale for the Health and Social Care Bill in response to his assertion that "… our Bill gives power to doctors and nurses". Now that the Bill has been passed and issues of implementation begin to arise I will return to this question throughout this week.

As I have often said it may have been true that the intention of the July 2010 White Paper had been to give power to GPs. At that time it was drafted it intended that GPs would form their own organisations to control the commissioning of most NHS care across the country.