Hello. We have a fresh shot of Maynard Doctrine for you today.

We also have another step in the death of the government with the stupid and vain (in both senses) dismissal of Professor David Nutt of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.

Alan Johnson was not wrong about his lack of leadership calibre. Pity. At one point, I thought he might have some.

Professor Alan Maynard OBE looks through the prism of QIPP at the NHS's task to avoid becoming heir to Royal Mail's strikes preceding privatisation. His solutions include a primary care-led A&E; turning the noun 'collaborator' into a positive; and the Kwik-Fit hospital.

QIPP: the policy announced in David Nicholson's August 2009 “need to know“ letter to Chief Executives as a follow-up to Ara Darzi's “Next Stage Review”: Quality Innovation Productivity and Prevention (or backing all horses in the hope that one will cross the finishing line!)

In the latest of the NHS Confederation’s policy salon series, speakers from the Institute for Government and KPMG led a discussion on opportunities from putting together funding streams across the public sector and for more integrated working.

The Institute for Government is a new independent, non-aligned organisation seeking to promote more effective government (and opposition) and civil and public service.

I'm really busy today, and haven't time to write much, so would recommend a couple of other things for you to read.

The first is from Professor David Colquhoun's Improbable Science blog, on the subject of queueing theory and ITU beds. It is superb, clearly written and very comprehensible. Best wishes to him for his forthcoming operation.

Managing demand in the downturn – thinking the unthinkable, held last Thursday, was the latest in the NHS Confederation’s policy salon series looked at what demand management may be possible in recessionary times. The previous session was on Payment By Results in the economic downturn.

Hello. Son and heir's birthday today, so this is a quickie and the full report from yesterday's engaging NHS Confederation seminar will have to wait.

Coda from Day One
I managed to grab a quick question with David Nicholson yesterday after his content-lite speech.

Good morning from Manchester, where the NHS Alliance's 12th annual conference kicks off - and let's hope it does. As mentioned in my interview with Alliance chief executive Michael Sobanja, the event has an honorable history of straight talking. (And it's interesting to compare the agenda for 2009 with this interview from this time last year, with Alliance chair Michael Dixon. It's also a bit depressing that the key issues have seen little change in the past year.)

Welcome friends and colleagues to this 12th NHS Alliance Annual Conference. The best NHS conference of the year, of course, but only because you represent the very best of primary care. The best managers, clinicians and non execs leading at the NHS’s frontline.

You are, as Miss Jean Brodie put it, “La crème de la crème”!

The past
Twelve years and a General Election in the near future make it a good time to take stock for the NHS and NHS Alliance.

Starting with the past, let’s pause for a second and celebrate our successes.

Bill Moyes has had a good war as executive chair of independent foundation trust regulator Monitor, a job he will stop doing in January 2010.