King's Fund: NHS changes 'damaging and distracting'

Radical changes to the way the NHS in England is organised have been disastrous and distracted from patient care, according to the King's Fund.

The think tank said that the coalition government's changes had wasted three years, failed patients, caused financial distress and left a strategic vacuum.

Chris Ham, chief executive of the King's Fund, told the BBC that the changes had been "hugely damaging and distracting".

"If the government hadn't pursued misguided reforms for the first two or three years, we believe the NHS would be in better shape", he added.