Billions wasted on 'damaging and distracting' NHS reforms
'Damaging and distracting': Former health secretary Andrew Lansley's radical reforms came under attack in a highly critical assessment of the Government's record on the health service
Ministers have estimated that the cost of implementing policies in the legislation at £1.5 billion, while Labour has claimed that the shake-up cost £3 billion.
Mr Ham said it was a "strategic error" to concentrate on organisational changes when the NHS should have been focusing on growing financial and service pressures.
The report said that an unwieldy structure has emerged, with leadership "fractured" between several national bodies, a "bewilderingly complex" regulatory system and a "strategic vacuum". It also cited an increase in bureaucracy.
Mr Ham said he agreed with the view that the organisation of the NHS is "not fit for purpose", adding: "Nobody starting with a blank sheet of paper would end up creating anything like this.
"It was more fit for purpose before the reforms. It wasn't a perfect structure in 2010, but it was less imperfect than the one we have to work with now."
He highlighted the issue of "system leadership" at a local level.
"Nobody is in charge locally. There is not a body ... that has the oversight of how the NHS is run at a regional level or at an area level that can bring all these organisations together and try and get a common approach to dealing with financial and performance problems.
"I think from the Government's point of view that is a huge, huge risk."
Asked about the impact on patients, he said: "I think it means declining performance, particularly on waiting time targets.
"On safety and quality there has been a really strong refocusing."
The King's Fund was less critical of the Government's approach to the NHS in the second half of the Parliament, saying ministers have turned their attention away from competition and choice to concentrate on regulation, improving patient care and achieving closer integration of services.
The report said: "Since September 2012, Jeremy Hunt has taken the lead on damage limitation, studiously ignoring many of the reforms promoted by his predecessor and staking his claim as the defender of patients' interests in the wake of the Francis report into failures of care at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust."
Claims of widespread privatisation were played down in the report, which found that less than 10% of the healthcare budget was spent on non-NHS providers.
Mr Ham said: "During the debate on the Bill ... we came out very clearly and said we don't support the legislation but you are crying wolf if you are arguing this is going to lead to the widespread privatisation of NHS care."
Labour has previously pointed to claims of privatisation when attacking the Government on the NHS.
