They are changing the guard at the NHS. The wily and wise Sir Ian Kennedy, who was responsible for the creation of the Healthcare Commission, will soon hand over responsibility for regulating the health service to a new Care Quality Commission.

He is leaving the service with a cleaner bill of health than when he began. After three years of rating the NHS’s performance, today’s assessment from the Healthcare Commission suggests an improving service, with more hospitals and other services delivering high-quality care. Waiting times have been dramatically cut and instead of disgraceful delays, cancer patients are receiving much faster treatment.

The NHS is also on a more stable footing, with almost two thirds of trusts showing solid financial management.

So should it be trebles all round? That would be premature. We should expect significant improvement from a service that has had its budget more than doubled since 1997 to more than £100 billion today.

Yet today’s report found too many NHS trusts delivering only adequate services – one in three achieved the rating “fair”.

We should be concerned about the small number of trusts that fail consistently to get to grips with their financial problems, and the lack of progress on controlling Clostridium difficile. The legacy of the Healthcare Commission is an acceptance that measurement and a focus on quality are essential. As economic storm clouds gather, value will be the watchword.

Niall Dickson is chief executive of the King’s Fund, the independent health think-tank, based in London

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