There are a couple of intrinsic dilemmas in NHS reform.

The first relates to the current debate about markets and competition. Monitor chair David Bennett's recent interview with The Times demonstrated that he's comceptualising NHS reform - at least, to The Times audience - as akin to a pre-privatisation utility.

Two major new policy interventions emerge today, in the light of yesterday’s U-turn by Our Saviour And Liberator on price competition. And one cracking news story on GP refurbishments.

The first is the publication of a major new survey by IPSOS MORI for the BMA, which finds that among those 1,645 polled, even the minority of doctors who generally back NHS reform plans – which was around 18%, in the sample selected - believe that competition will lead to fragmentation across the service.

The U-turn that could mirror the U-bend for Our Saviour And Liberator Lansley's political career has just been executed.

There is not going to be any maximum price-setting to facilitiate price competition. The Health And Social Care Bill will be amended.

It is fitting that a clear confirmation comes from the best health journalist in the business, Nick Timmins of the Financial Times. I make it a point of principle not ever to agree with marketing slogans; but even I would have to accept that we are indeed living in financial times.

The dynamic between urbane ex-health secretary and Commons health select comittee chair Stephen Dorrell MP and Our Saviour And Liberator Andrew Lansley has eluded me until this evening, when a remark of Dorrell's from a 'Question Time' event today at a think-tank seminar was broadcast on Twitter.

With thanks to our man on the inside La Gorge Profonde for sending us a copy, Health Policy Insight readers can download the full Integrated Health Partners 'GP profits' document at the centre of today's major The Guardian & Channel 4 News story here.

Nuffield Trust Summit Question Time 2.3.11 - highlights from Twitter

Chair: Micahel White, elderly sage and hack, The Guardian

Panel
Stephen Dorrell MP, chair, Commons Health Select Committee; former health secretary

Alan Milburn, former health secretary

Polly Toynbee, author and Guardian journalist

Simon Stevens, CEO UnitedHealth; former health policy advisor to Dobson F, Milburn A and Blair T

Q1: Are the current reforms simply an evolution of New Labour's reforms?

I'm grateful to a private healthcare market analyst reader who, having read our coverage of the Integrated Health Partners back-story, emailed in the following information about IHP MD Oliver Bernath:

"IHP have not proven that successful in their work building relations with GPs. They have, as your story notes, been hawking their model around for over three years; yet have only a small group of GP partners across the country.

Hats off to Tom Watson MP for his FOI work revealing that the Civil Service appointments code has been breached 30 times since the formation of the Coalition Government, revealed on Labour List.

Guardian social affairs editor Randeep Ramesh has, in association with Channel 4 News, broken this story about private healthcare firm Integrated Health Partners' plans to turn underspends in GP commissioning consortia's annual budgets into profits by treating patients at 95% of the cost of the NHS.

The Channel 4 News web copy on this story, by Victoria MacDonald, is here.

The Health Select Committee resumed its deliberations on commissioning this morning, hearing evidence from a partner in Beechcrofts, and health policy specialists Professor Calum Paton, Professor Paul Corrigan and NHS Confederation acting CE Nigel Edwards.

Chair Stephen Dorrell’s opening question was about the confusing evolution of commissioning policy in the light fo the Health Bill: is it centralising power, or dissolving the national in NHS?