British media went to shit first. British politics followed.

@HPIAndyCowper i think you are in fact "The Marina Hyde of Health Policy"

Oh, another day of Matt Hancock getting prodded by m'learned friend.... @HPIAndyCowper

https://t.co/S9GHztseLN

It's NHS Data Dump Day, Super Stats Day You won't see it in the press releases or most media coverage... ...But figures on community services are published, as well as hospital stats, today covering up to Nov 24 Here's a summary analysis I'll try to repeat each month 🧵

Blogged: the question is not just: "what should the government do?" It is rather: "how can we create pressures that force governments into positive change?"

When trying to interpret medical news on Twitter, remember the expression “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't”. Advances in medicine are often incremental and it's rare to find an intervention that has a large effect on health outcomes or on health care costs.

I discuss why here:

By the middle of December, only 37% of those eligible for a flu jab - including the over-65s, under- 17s, NHS workers, carers, pregnant women and people with long-term health conditions such as asthma and diabetes - had been vaccinated.

Important post here on other types of workforce substitution occurring across the NHS. Excellent work from @UKFCOT! @parthaskar @iDrSunny @ExplosiveEnema2 @medi

@NHS England is an ornamental meeting-cum-talking shop, and a recycling centre for the hard of delivery https://t.co/Bi204gZFTO via @HPIAndyCowper

In the future, everybody will be French prime minister for 15 minutes.

‘Healthcare 2000’ was perceived at the time to be not un-influential https://t.co/8ReQ5iiT4X, but as we now know, its predictions didn’t happen.

After his time in charge, Sir Duncan Nichol created a thinktank ‘Healthcare 2000’, which predicted NHS user charges and service reductions. https://t.co/oIYv43sPr9

This should probably mention that Countess Of Chester chair Sir Duncan Nichol also used to be chief executive of the NHS 1989-1994. https://t.co/h7GFtz8q4M

@sib313 @HPIAndyCowper fwiw, I think that there's too little standardisation of processes for much meaningful to be pulled from variation. I suspect that triage planned actions and outcomes/timings could be useful.

@HPIAndyCowper League tables are a simplistic and ineffective way to pursue better public availability of important performance information.

@HPIAndyCowper Far more attention is merited on making detailed information on outcome and performance variability available. But the NHS has not invested in that (eg the neglect of the NHS Atlas of Variation)...

@HPIAndyCowper Studying variation in outcomes and performance is hugely important for driving the insights needed to improve. But, when the system wants to pretend performance is adequate, it is very uncomfortable.

@HPIAndyCowper ...cue 70's Led Zep Top of the Pops theme music...

@sib313 @HPIAndyCowper And no guarantee that 3 stars is representative of performance - RUH Bath hidden waiting lists comes to mind