Health policy and economic management emerge from the party conferences as political battle lines that will run until the next election

The 2007 conference season proved the old adage, ‘a week is a long time in politics’.

On Saturday the 29th September an election seemed certain. Gordon Brown told the Sunday Times that he would make health policy the central issue. “We will show we are the only party with the strength and vision to deliver change against a Conservative Party which refuses to back our reforms and cannot match our investment".

But by Saturday October 6th the prime minister told the BBC there would not be a November election. He wanted time to set out his vision for the country. In the intervening 7 days the Conservatives bounced back in the polls. They claimed the NHS as Conservative ground and accused the prime minister of playing politics with the timing of Darzi review – releasing it at the end of the Conservative conference and ahead of parliament reconvening.

A result of the conference season has been to make health policy and economic management the central themes of a reinvigorated and intensified political debate - two issues that are closely tied together in the Darzi review. The review will be the prism through which political issues are debated, raising issues such as reconfiguration, reform in primary care and ways to improve public accountability. It will also reveal different ideas within healthcare about how to develop reform, raising important issues about organisational and professional power.

This following draws upon a wide range of media reports, new research, discussion at seminars and the publication of guidance and policy to try and make sense of the complex context. It is divided into three parts. The first sets out emerging issues likely to dominate the new political season. The second explores how policy is likely to develop in this context. The final part focuses on what may become the biggest area of debate, how the NHS can be made more locally accountable.