The NHS "University", launched by Alan Milburn when he was health secretary, was finally declared dead today.

Always a rather sickly initiative, the NHSU fell foul of suspicion among established universities with medical schools and valuable nurse training programmes and from the powerful strategic health authorities in the health service.

Bob Fryer, the chief executive of the NHSU - at one time referred to as "vice-chancellor-designate" - had talked of a fully fledged university awarding its own degrees and doing research. But universities jealously argued this would duplicate their own medical education and jealously guarded the continuing professional development of doctors, nurses and other NHS professionals that has become such a lucrative source of revenue.

Nor was it clear how an organisation doing much of its work on basic skills and practical training would ever qualify as a university under strict UK rules.

Set up in December 2003 to be the "corporate university" for the NHS, within a year it was marked for abolition as part of moves to reduce bureaucracy and improve efficiency announced by Mr Milburn's successor, John Reid.

Today is its last day of operation and the 23 learning programmes it developed have been transferred to various strategic health authorities, with South Yorkshire taking the biggest number.

It is an ignominious end to the Labour party election pledge to establish a university that would encompass NHS staff from "cleaners to consultants ... from dentists to drivers".