News Analysis: Is handing power over health to Manchester best medicine for Britain's ailing NHS?

Britain's National Health Service, the epicenter of Britain's renowned welfare system, is to undergo it's biggest ever shake-up in its history spanning almost 70 years.

A budget of around 9.3 billion U.S. dollars is to be devolved to Manchester when it becomes the first ever English region to win full control of its health spending.

It follows a groundbreaking deal signed by Manchester and its nine close neighbors to opt for regional rule by a directly elected mayor from 2017.

Devolved powers will make Manchester the first provincial area of Britain to be given "home rule", matching powers exercised by London Mayor Boris Johnson.

It is all part of a so-called "Northern Powerhouse" promoted by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and Prime Minister David Cameron.

It's all about, they say, giving people in the Manchester area greater control over their own destinies.

The Manchester health deal, to be formally announced Friday, will see local officials and politicians in charge of spending on health and social care as well as hospitals.

One leading London-based think-tank commented that such a full transfer of responsibility for health from a national to a local level would be a reform "on a breathtaking scale".

Some observers are already warning it could pose risks and threats to the much-loved NHS, an institution itself in need of urgent medical attention as it grapples with an ageing population, and a rocketing health care bill.

Whether devolving the running of NHS facilities to local areas will be the best cure for the current ills, will generate debates among health professionals for months to come.

Shadow Health Secretary, Labor's Andy Burnham said if Labor take control at 10 Downing Street in May's General Election, the big Manchester NHS deal will be scrapped.

Burnham warned the measure would create a two-tier health service in England. He sounded a note of caution, saying England could end up with a National Health Service in which different parts of the system operate to different rules.

He commented: "If you're going to stick to the idea of a national health service you can't have a Swiss cheese NHS where some bits of the system are operating to different rules or have different powers and freedoms."

The big worry is the Manchester measure will be seen as a trojan horse, leading to the dismantling of the concept of a National Health Service, if similar local powers are handed to other regions.

There has been a clamour for control and power to be dispersed from Westminster following the independence referendum in Scotland.

Although the majority of Scots voted to stay part of the UK, the reward has been devolved powers denied to regions in England. Whether the NHS should be in the vanguard of devolution attracts mixed emotions.

In Manchester the NHS revolution is being broadly welcomed, saying it will give local decision makers control over the health and wellbeing of more than two million people.

But the city's leading newspaper, the Manchester Evening News, commented that devolving control of the NHS budget from Whitehall to Manchester must not be an exercise in passing the buck.

The paper says: "Greater Manchester faces a unique set of urgent health challenges, but the region's NHS system is still locked firmly in the 20th century. Our population has traditionally suffered some of the worst health in England, with shocking low rates of life expectancy, obesity, heart disease and cancer survival."

It points to the NHS becoming a tug-of-love child in the electoral battlegrounds as politicians fight for votes and power in the run up to May 7. Endit