As the sexagenarian NHS, on creaking ageing joints, soldiers on, Lord Darzi delivered his long awaited review, High quality care for all: NHS Next Stage Review final report at the end of June. As with all such stage-managed, high profile events, some content was released before the official launch date, as hors d’oeuvres to whet our appetites; consequently the official launch of the full report did not deliver too many major surprises. Without going into specific details (the College of Emergency Medicine’s response to the review can be seen on its website), what can be said about its themes and philosophy?

The review is fairly high level and does not drill down into micro management operational detail. It aims to “secure our NHS today for future generations”? (Be warned—anyone who reads it will find it littered with this sort of weasel motherhood statement. Another word of warning—it is liberally laced with new jargon and acronyms, eg, best practice tariff, CQUIN, clinical dashboards, ICO, NQB and PROM, as well as there being reference to the NHS Journey, “journey” a word currently fashionable in Management Speak).

The emphasis Darzi puts on …