ABSTRACT
The Purchaser Chief Executives group had mapped the relationships of the reformed National Health Service (NHS) on an imaginary dartboard covered with one-off ‘hits’. Reformation of the NHS is at hand; from which may even follow a further historical epoch: the Age of Enlightenment. Reformation in history applies to the phases when the different, diverse strands of strategic development start finally to come together. A new orthodoxy is created, with roots in a past that long precedes the more immediate periods of upheaval; and with substantial popular support right across society. Witness the birth of the Lutheran and Anglican traditions – new churches in their time, belonging very much to their nation states and yet still claiming direct line descendancy to the first Apostles. Around the bulls-eye were stuck three pieces of paper bearing the titles ‘Secretary of State’, ‘General Practices, and ‘HA Chief Executives’.
