Prime Minister David Cameron said the government had "listened" and "learned" as he announced significant changes to the Health and Social Care Bill.
As recommended by the NHS Future Forum, the Bill will now see less focus on promoting private sector involvement and stronger safeguards against a market free-for-all.
The amendments came after the results of the two month listening exercise were published yesterday which included suggestions that all NHS service providers should be open to public scrutiny and fund education and training for staff.
Some of the main changes adopted include:
- legal responsibility of the health secretary for the NHS to be reinstated;
- relaxation of the 2013 deadline for new GP commissioning arrangements;
- greater power for health and well-being boards with patients given a greater role on them;
- and other professionals such as hospital doctors and nurses to be involved in commissioning consortia.
These are in addition to the significantly diluted focus on competition, with the regulator, Monitor, instead focusing on improving patient choice.
The British Medical Association (BMA) has welcomed the changes but warned there could still be some side effects, while private medical insurance (PMI) provider PruHealth said the health and wellbeing boards held a significant opportunity.
Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of council at the BMA, said: "We are pleased that the government has accepted the Future Forum's core recommendations, and that there will be significant revisions to the Health and Social Care Bill.
"We will need to look carefully at the details of the changes, but it seems clear that what we are likely to see is a very different Bill, and one which puts the reforms on a better track.
"The success of the reforms will very much depend on how the various elements link together and work on a practical level and on how much they engage clinicians and patients locally.
"We welcome the shift in the role of Monitor away from promoting competition, however, while we have always supported the principle of greater choice for patients, it has to be workable.
"There will need to be robust safeguards to ensure that vital services are not destabilised by unnecessary competition," he concluded.
Dr Katie Tryon at PruHealth added: "The emphasis from the Future Forum on improved transparency was significant.
"Historically, healthcare, both in the public and private sector, has been fairly opaque, with significant information asymmetry between the providers of health and care and the recipients.
"Furthermore, through the Future Forum recommendations, the opportunity which sits with the Health and Wellbeing Boards should not be underestimated.
"These Boards have in their hands the potential to deliver integrated health and wellness which will improve the health of the nation and thereby reduce the financial burden on the NHS, the key to achieving this is by incentivising healthy behaviour."
