This week sees yet another crucial period for the NHS and its reforms as the politics of NHS reform restarts after the summer break. Parliament has returned and so has the Health and Social Care Bill.

Over the next three months the Government will need to develop a clearer sense of direction and detail for its NHS reforms. Given their timetable it will be necessary, by the end of 2011, for two major processes to be much nearer completion than they are at the moment. If the next three months repeat the stops and starts of the three months from April to June, it’s difficult to see how the Government can achieve very much reform at all during this five year Parliament.