He was praised by the prime minister, Tony Blair, for his contribution to British healthcare and was created Baron Crisp, of Eaglescliffe in the County of Durham, on 28 April 2006.

[citation needed] The Kings Fund has reported that during Crisp's tenure the English NHS began the greatest improvement in its history.

[7] Major reforms were introduced including patient choice, the engagement of the private sector, nurse prescribing and much more.

[10] In 2016, a biography of Tony Blair – Broken Vows: Tony Blair, The Tragedy of Power by British author Tom Bower, reported Ken Anderson's comment "Crisp had no control over costs and didn’t have a clue what to do", following the former's investigation into why the NHS accounts were six months late.

Bowers describes that after an assessment by management consultants McKinsey & Company, Tony Blair and Secretary of State for Health Patricia Hewitt decided Crisp should be replaced, and part of the method used to induce Crisp to resign at age 54 was to award him a life peerage.

[13] As Patron of THET (The Tropical Health and Education Trust) he has continued to develop and support partnerships around the world.

See https://www.nursingnow.org/ He chaired Sightsavers International from 2007 to 2013, is a vice-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health,[15] is a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and an Honorary Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.