Health policy/politics. “Invaluable, insightful, funny: excellent value for money. Subscribe!" - @NicholasTimmins “The worst journalist!” - @wesstreeting
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?" https://t.co/EyNJbMb6s3
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.
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.
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
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
@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.
@PatelCardio @sib313 It’s a few years ago now that @tara_donnelly1 and I came up with that (Dartmouth Atlas-inspired) idea.
It should have been better-supported, but it was 100% the right idea.
NHS league tables.
Again.
Sigh.
https://t.co/LOOWdHqzjE...
“Half a league table, half a league table, half a league table onward,
Into the valley of the shadow of career death
Rode the six hundred.”
(With apologies to Alfred Tennyson.)
@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.