Health economist Professor Alan Maynard runs the rule over the Stevens regime

Who would want Simon Steven’s job? One can only admire the fortitude of Sir Galahad (better known as SS). He is mired in the bog that is Whitehall, with the natives running riot, practising planned parsimony voted for by no sensible citizen.

Sir G quests quietly and determinedly for the Holy Grails: leverage to facilitate financial solvency; avoidance of crises; and radical reform of NHS attitudes and practices.

Health economist Professor Alan Maynard says that NHS activity and performance measurement need to improve significantly.

The NHS has three problems with ensuring managers are adept at measurement and thus able to deploy their skills efficiently, rather than haphazardly.

Firstly, there is a paucity of data, particularly in primary care.

Secondly, there is an enormous stock of secondary care data which managers neglect.

Health economist Professor Alan Maynard imagines the contents of a memo from the Prime Minister to Jeremy Hunt

Dear Jeremy,

As you seem to be experiencing some local difficulties, I felt it was incumbent on me as your Prime Minister to offer some advice and how we might proceed with NHS and social care matters.

Social care problems
As you know, I am rather lazy and do not keep up with the minutiae of policymaking. Consequently, I was surprised to discover from local authority colleagues in Oxford about the scale of the cuts they are facing.

Health economist Professor Alan Maynard calls for Simon Stevens' digital extraction on non-evidence-based policy initiatives

Sir Galahad (aka Simon Stevens) is in an “interesting” position at NHS England. Post my Lord Lansley’s daft reforms, Galahad and his merry persons are supposedly independent arbiters of NHS policy, subject to the Department of Health annual contract.

Health economist Professor Alan Maynard explores how workforce issues, funding and social care gaps amount to an NHS conflagration

On Nero and fiddling whilst the NHS burns
The Department of Health and NHS England continue to produce a plethora of what the charitable might call innovations. As the Comprehensive Spending Review progresses, ’bold’ notions, such as allocating more NHS funding to social care, echo through the corridors of Richmond House.

As ever, life in the real NHS emulates the old Chinese curse: “may you live in interesting times”!

Health economist Professor Alan Maynard on tide-turning, mustroom management and hole-hollowing

The post-election logic of the Government NHS policy is as elusive as a piece of soap in the bath. But then, perhaps we are expecting too much of the Government’s attempts to keep the NHS show on the road.
Let’s review three areas of their post-election NHS “innovatory” activity.

The King Canute Problem of wishful thinking is no substitute for evidence based policy

Health economist Professor Alan Maynard suggests that it’s time for a little definition of what we actually mean by policy goals

Ministers continue to assert, in the true Thatcherite tradition, that they are interested in “value for money”.

However, when it comes to short-term political gain and favourable publicity in the press, they squander society’s scarce resources by funding schemes where evidence of cost-effectiveness is absent.

Likewise, they fail to ensure scientific evaluation of their usually evidence-free innovations.

Health economist Professor Alan Maynard wonders what the bloody hell’s going on with electioneering health policy, and is mildly sceptical about the reality of £22 billion efficiency gains

Aneurin Bevan smashed through a myriad of institutional obstacles to create the NHS in 1948. His underlying concern was income protection: ensuring that citizens were not bankrupted by unpredictable life events that required medical care. Bevan’s NHS was to remove the price barrier to use of medical care, removing fear of the financial consequences of ill-health.

Health economist Professor Alan Maynard casts doubt on the £22 billion efficiency challenge

Dear Sir Galahad,

Your noble intentions in pursuing the Holy Grail of increased productivity in the NHS have been noted. As you know, I am a ‘shape shifter’ (i.e. I can appear in a variety of forms). This has enabled me to attend covertly various meetings in Whitehall village and Quarry House, Leeds and listen to the often chaotic burblings and confused intentions of those in charge of NHS policymaking.

The cacophony (as you can imagine) has been considerable because the imminence of the election and the Stalinist efforts of the Coalition to curtail expressions of panic.