With acknowldgement to HSJ editor Alastair McLellan for the inspiration (i.e. I nicked his concept), here are a list of what I currently think are the top 26 health policy questions for Secretary of State For Health Andrew Lansley CBE MP.

1. Will GP commissioners or consortia have hard budgets?

It's not unduly newsworthy, but interesting to note that the usually reliable Iain Dale's Diary blog says that the next health select committee will have a Conservative MP in the chair.

NHS London chair Sir Richard Sykes has resigned over Health Secretary Andrew Lansley's over-ruling of the Healthcare For London reconfiguration plans, the Evening Standard reveals.

Sykes' letter of resignation to Lansley states that the resignation is prompted because “our visions of healthcare delivery bear so little in common”. It also says that other NHS London board members are also “considering their positions”.

Good evening. Bit manic today.

Tomorrow, we will discuss how much pro-market people dislike actual capitalism.

For today, you may already have feasted on our fresh serving of Maynard Doctrine, in which The Good Professor considers what sense the government is making with its NICE-defying National Cancer Drugs Fund.

Can you guess what he concludes?

Karl Marx argued that history repeats itself: the "the first time as tragedy, the second as farce".

The Liberal Conservative coalition government seems to be reversing this sequence.

Number 10 has now put up its notes on the Health Bill.

It states that the main elements of the Bill are:

"To establish an independent NHS Board to allocate resources and provide commissioning guidance, and to allow GPs to commission services on behalf of their patients.

"To improve efficiency and outcomes by strengthening the role of the Care Quality Commission and developing Monitor into an economic regulator to oversee aspects of access and competition in the NHS.

In a spectacular exclusive with major policy implications, HSJ states that Health Secretary Andrew Lansley plans to abolish England's 10 strategic health authorities (SHAs) by April 2010, once his national commissioning board is established.

This policy was a Liberal Democrat manifesto commitment.

The story suggesst that not all the SHAs' 3,752 non-medical staff would be signing on directly: some might work at new GP commissiong consortia; others at "new regional offices of the independent commissioning board".

Further to this recent post pointing out that only one of Secretary Of State For Health The Rt Hon Andrew Lansley CBE MP’s four tests for service review is empricially measurable, it was interesting to pick up this DH press release.

The DH release says that Lansley “outlined new, strengthened criteria that he expects decisions on NHS service changes to meet. They must
- focus on improving patient outcomes;
- consider patient choice;

The DH has outlined the new ministers' bits.

This announcement makes it clear that the responsibilites are broadly as follows:

Simon Burns MP - Minister of State for Health, portfolio includes:
Legislation
NHS Performance
Health Services
Reconfiguration of Services
Patient Safety
Application of Quality Regulation
NHS Workforce
Mixed Sex Accommodation
Connecting for Health

Paul Burstow MP - Minister of State for Care Services, portfolio includes:
Long Term Care Reform
Adult Social Care

Further to our last story on Asda's incursion into health policy, it was interesting to note (via a news link on the excellent Dr Grumble blog) that the country's first supermarket-based GP service has lost its funding from the PCT.