In his Sunday Telegraph article, Mr Streeting suggested more was to come, saying new NHS England chair Penny Dash had “identified hundreds of bodies cluttering the patient safety and regulatory landscape, leaving patients and staff alike lost in a labyrinth of paperwork and frustration”.

Government officials insisted this did not amount to “a top-down reorganisation” in the mould of former Conservative health secretary Andrew Lansley’s changes, which were so extensive that the NHS’s then-CEO quipped they could be seen from space.