A district health authority was an administrative unit of the National Health Service in England and Wales from 1982 to 2000. Both the configuration and the responsibilities were altered several times during that period. Area Health Authorities, which existed from 1974 to 1982, were an intermediate tier created by the 1974 reorganisation. The most common complaint in evidence about the reorganisation of the NHS made to the Royal Commission on the National Health Service was that it added an extra and unnecessary tier of management.