Hewitt rejects independent NHS plea

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In a speech to the London School of Economics, Ms Hewitt said the NHS was too large to be taken out of the Government's control.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has called for an end to "political dabbling", while Gordon Brown has reportedly been in favour of handing over day-to-day control of the NHS to an independent board.

But Ms Hewitt, who is widely expected to lose her job when Mr Brown becomes Prime Minister, rejected the idea.

She said: "For a growing chorus the answer is 'independence'.

"Stop the changes. Stop political interference. Set the NHS free. Give it an independent board and let it get on with the job. It's a seductive idea.

"Surely the NHS is more capable of managing itself than the Government?

"Let's just think about this. Start with size and scale. The NHS in England will spend over £90 billion this year. If the NHS was a country, it would be the 33rd biggest economy in the world, larger than new European Union transition economies like Romania and Bulgaria.

"Would the Prime Minister of such a nation seriously propose today to take the entire economy and put it under a single independent board, every organisation in the hands of one owner, run as one entity? Of course not. The NHS is four times the size of the Cuban economy and more centralised. That is part of its problem."

Ms Hewitt said that, despite the myth of ministers controlling every local decision, "we have already taken significant steps towards creating an independent, self improving NHS". She pointed to the work of local managers and the creation of the much-criticised National Institute for Clinical Excellence.