What is the role of government?
Responsibility for health legislation and general policy rests with Parliament, the Secretary of State for Health, and the Department of Health. The National Health Service (NHS) provides care, including hospital and physi- cian services and prescription drugs, to all residents. Under the terms of the NHS Health and Social Care Act 2012, day-to-day responsibility for running the NHS has been handed over by the Department of Health and the Secretary of State for Health to a new governmental organization, the NHS Commissioning Board, subse- quently renamed NHS England.
NHS England is responsible for managing the NHS budget, overseeing the newly created Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), and ensuring that the objectives set out in a so-called mandate by the Secretary of State for Health are met by the NHS, including both efficiency and health goals. CCGs have replaced Primary Care Trusts as local health care purchasing organizations: the intention was that they should be clinically led, but although the clinical contribution has been strengthened, other professionals—e.g., managers and accoun- tants—remain important. Budgets for public health have been handed over by the Department of Health to local government authorities; the 2012 Act requires them to establish Health and Wellbeing Boards to improve coordination of local services, with particular reference to the need to reduce health disparities.