Short Cuts: 'Clear vision' for NHS needed in national plan

Left-wing think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research has urged the government to set out a 'clear vision' for the NHS in the national plan to be published at the end of the month. The IPPR says the government's extra funding presents an 'exciting opportunity' to secure a tax funded NHS, and says the general public still supports one. But it argues that people need convincing that resources are being spent in the right way. It also calls for a 'more coherent account' of the relationship between central and local control, saying implementing the government's vision is a 'major managerial challenge'.