As the NHS scrambles frantically to pull together its flock of annual reports, the intervention in the BMJ by Lifford and Prevenost throws the issue of measuring quality nicely onto the agenda.

Hello. You should already have read the latest dose of The Maynard Doctrine; if not, go and do so now.

Late. Knackered. Etc. So some quick links.

NICE man gets Mail
Here is Michael Rawlins pointing out that fearmongering rag the Daily Mail never lets the facts get in the way of a good piece of fiction. Whoops! Sorry, good story.

In NICE's own words, "of the 15 products allegedly rejected by NICE:

Professor Alan Maynard OBE examines the determinants of lifetime health through the prism of the ‘Bard of Hull’ Philip Larkin’s best-known poem.

The ‘experts’ are predicting that many children born in 2010 will live for a hundred years and more provided the population is not cropped by Malthusian war, diseases and famine (and earthquakes and volcanic eruptions!).

So.

There I was, minding my own business, and that of everybody else in my local area.

There I was, just:
- deciding on a few planning applications;
- scrutinising the contracts for the local sub-contractors to the Crossrail project;
- assessing the cost-effectiveness of a digital interactive home schooling intiative versus sacking 45% of the local teachers;
- disciplining some council officials;
- and voting for the borough's top ten potholes, when ...

What do you mean, what was I doing?

Congratulations to Health Service Journal's Sally Gainsbury, whose follow-up to her scoop on the Royal Surrey selling drugs in europe to profit from the fall in sterling has hit most of the media today.

This is a good example of two things: a journalist sticking with a story (a rare thing in the ADD media); and why it is always better to kitchen-sink the truth out there when you get rumbled.

Expect a resignation at the Surrey by the end of play tomorrow.

You all know the old Yes, Minister joke: hapless minister Hacker writes “Balls” on a bad document.

Nice civil servant Bernard tells him such language is not OK in the civil service. Hacker rewrites, to “Round objects”.

The document comes back form Sir Humphrey, with the further annotation, “who is Round and to what does he object?”

Sometimes, on a bad day, I think I may be talking round objects about health policy. Sometimes, maybe I do.

It is late. I am knackered. Back properly tomrrow, but just one thought.

Both major parties launched their manifestos in buildings that don't work: one used to ages ago; the other will shortly.

Metaphor-tastic.

Professor Alan Maynard OBE torches a Spaghetti Junction of bridges with the professions. The RCN in particular will be very fond of him for this …

There is a proliferation of professions in healthcare and as George Bernard Shaw emphasised, these institutions are “a conspiracy against the laity”.

Wheeeeeeee! The claim and counter-claim merry-go-round of NHS politics is gathering momentum. (Pre-electoral tension, innit?)

You may have seen that we discussed the Conservatives' new proposals on cancer drugs here and here.

Well, the iridescent John Appleby and the ineluctable David Jenner have since added their contributions to the discussion, as you can see here.

Hello, and Happy Easter.

It was interesting to read the Telegraph story that David Cameron has discovered The Magical Money Tree Where Cash Grows For Free.

No, not really. But after Labour's obfuscation on how they would pay for the National Care Service, the Conservatives have fired the starting gun on the electoral auction of promises for health, with his decision to abolish NICE. And fund any drug a doctor wants to prescribe.