A few weeks ago the Chair of the Select Committee, Stephen Dorrell MP, said that the Government had lost control of its health policy. Since that date there has been almost daily evidence of just how far that loss of control has gone, and we are seeing very different groups of people, with very different interests, wrestling for the control of NHS policy that the Government has given up.

This was always going to be the case once a Government that had been arguing for a very fast pace of reform suddenly decided that rather than continuing at breakneck speed they should stand still.