News / Election views

Steve Richards, The Independent’s chief political commentator, gave the media view, while former health secretary and Commons Health Committee chairman Stephen Dorrell gave the political angle.

Mr Dorrell said that while the Five-year forward view set out a five-year plan, conventional wisdom suggested that the government had two years to ‘get business done’. ‘Time is very short and the time to make the argument for transformative change is now,’ he said.

Finally, Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust, said healthcare redesign had to be condition specific. ‘This requires managerial headroom and there is a limit to how many you can do at once,’ he said.