Matthew Taylor says the challenge is to enable what happens in the NHS – the ‘industrial system’ – to succeed while also becoming more aligned with the wider ambition of the social model

Something intriguing is happening to how England manages the health of its population. There is transformative potential, but also danger that contradictory impulses and a failure to grapple with hard questions result in a reversion to business as usual, condemning the NHS to indefinite crisis management.

For as long as modern healthcare has existed, there have been two competing perspectives. The first is the ‘medical’ model, but might more accurately be described as ‘industrial’. Health policy is seen through the prism of the demands on, and provision of, the health care industry; essentially, what happens in the NHS.