Jeremy Hunt’s announcement in Parliament last Tuesday on the changes he is planning in the wake of the Francis Report into events at Stafford Hospital was remarkable for two things: the complete absence of the key factor that Robert Francis identified as being at the heart of the poor care at the hospital and as clear a case of “giving away the ‘master’-plan” as you will ever see.

Or not wish to see, since for all Hunt’s timorousness and petulance it will be an absolute disaster for hundreds of thousands of people.

The problem that never was, or ‘out of sight, out of mind?’

Hunt prefaced his announcement of his measures by genuflecting before the altar of the Francis report:

I also pay tribute to Robert Francis QC for his work in producing a seminal report that will, I believe, mark a turning point in the history of the NHS…Our…