Doubt over removal of DH 'shackles'

Tensions are emerging in government plans to remove the "shackles" of central control by liberating foundation trusts and strengthening regulators.

Health Service Journal reports that proposals for regulating providers, published this week, set out a range of freedoms for foundation trusts, including removing the private patient income cap, removing borrowing limits and making it easier to merge.

Announcing the plans, health secretary Andrew Lansley said: 'In order to truly improve health outcomes and the service the NHS gives to patients, it must be free from the shackles of central control.'

But there are tensions in some of the proposals to liberate foundation trusts.

The paper says management of the taxpayers' risk and interest in foundation trusts, for example the public investment in its assets, may be transferred to another agency from Monitor, which will become the independent economic regulator.