Widely reported today was the formal unveiling of the Conservative party’s proposal of an independent board for the National Health Service. Mr Cameron, speaking alongside his health spokesman Andrew Lansley, insisted it was time to “move away from the idea that the Government's role is to micro-manage the delivery of health care and moving towards greater professional responsibility for those who work in the NHS."

   The reception for Cameron’s first concrete policy proposal since promising to make the NHS his priority at the party conference has been encouraging. Rosie Winterton, minister of state for health, said that the idea was "worth looking at". The Telegraph noticed it “sounded uncannily like the plan put forward by Gordon Brown only a few weeks before.”

   However, Steve Webb the Liberal Democrat Health spokesman has joined other experts in questioning the wisdom of introducing an extra level of bureaucracy that is devoid of accountability. He is quoted in the Financial Times: "We should not be handing power over to an unelected quango - independent of politicians, but accountable to no one,"

     Many people would agree with the sentiment that politicians should be less involved with the day to day running of NHS, which is best left up to the health professionals who understand these challenges, through a lifetime of working within the system. Yet Steve Webb is absolutely correct to question whether Cameron’s proposal (or Brown’s before it)  is the best means to facilitate this administrative shift.