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.

There is a bitter symmetry between the incidence and the prevalence of the punishment beating in NHS culture.

The first reason why the culture of punishment beating exists?

Existential teleology.

There is a cadre of the managerial community whose purpose is to administer punishment beatings.

Therefore, punishment beating must have value: part of the management infrastructure exists to perpetuate punishment beatings. (Without such value, there would be no punishment beatings.)

This is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Money, power and ownership are central to the politics and policy of the NHS.

They're also often misunderstood.

Money is back in the news this morning with Virgin toilet misuser Jeremy Hunt apparently offering junior doctors an 11% pay rise as part of changes to the junior doctors' contract.

"Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Prize" - Tom Lehrer

The Guardian noticed the ACOBA report on The Lord Lansley CBE's extracurricular business activities.

Andrew Lansley (saviour, liberator) is going to be a management consultant.

The appointment of Northumbria Healthcare FT/ACO leader Jim Mackey as the debut chief executive of NHS Improvement has been pretty much universally welcomed.

At the risk of going with the consensus, he does indeed seem to be an excellent appointment. The double-act with chair Ed Smith, a formidable NED of NHS England, is a good start.

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.

Well, that was interesting.

Last night, Our Saviour And Liberator Andrew Lansley took exception to yesterday's post on feeling sympathy for Jeremy Hunt.

On Twitter.

Replying to my Tweeting the link. Mr Lansley wrote, "when you're not issuing childish abuse, do you think NHSE(ngland) should be independent; if so, why not offer credit?".

It's a perfectly fair question.

Since working out yesterday that Sun King Simon Stevens is now the de facto Secretary Of State For Health and Jeremy Hunt is NHS director for patient safety, I've had an odd sensation bubbling through my giblets.

No, it's not wind. I've been feeling sorry for Jeremy Hunt.

And to be frank, it feels a little weird.

The current NHS landscape, polar ice sheets and tall buildings all have one thing in common. When they start to collapse, they seem to move at first slowly; then massively and fast.

Simon Stevens' speech to the Kings Fund's Integrating Care conference this morning confirmed the completion of what HPI identified as a longstanding shift in the Conservatives offshoring political power over the health service.

Health Policy Insight has long had a a soft spot for junior health ministers in what passes for our hearts.

The greatest was of course the legendary Sir Simon Burns.