The United Kingdom will hand the reigns of its state-run health care system back to doctors, Prime Minister David Cameron announced Monday.

Cameron said family practitioners should resume control over the system instead of bureaucrats, and the reform would save money and cut red tape.

Critics say the changes will cause chaos and could lead to privatization of the often-criticized but widely popular National Health Service.

Standards of care in Britain continue to fall behind other European countries. Britain took over the private health care sector in 1948. Today, it costs nearly $160 billion a year to operate.

The government is due to publish details of its reforms in a Health and Social Care Bill on Wednesday.