Many journalists and commentators are cynical, or become so. It can become dull as a default position.

I've seen a couple of things today which indicate that there may be a possibility that the NHS Commissioning Board may recognise the sound of a penny dropping when it hears it.

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Click here for details of 'Letters? Pray!', the new issue of subscription-based Health Policy Intelligence.

"If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change."
(The Leopard, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa)

Two letters have defined the past few weeks in NHS policy.

Risk registers, eh? Gotta love 'em.

Couldn't eat a whole one, though.

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Click here for details of 'Letters? Pray!', the new issue of subscription-based Health Policy Intelligence.

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Enough of the local election results are now in that it's possible to form a few thoughts about what it all means.

Not very much ...
On a 30% turnout, local election results can't and shouldn't be taken as strong predictors of the 2015 general election.

Yes, turnout is traditionally low in local elections. These are things which excite political obsessives (and of course candidates) more than they do Worcester Woman, Mondeo Man, The Person On The Clapham Omnibus and whatever other psephological phantoms you may care to name.

Notes from the main sessions of the NHS Clinial Commissioners conference

Dr David Bennett, Monitor
Dr David Bennett, executive chair and acting CE, Monitor gave a wide-ranging presentation on the role Monitor will play in the post-Act NHS. Among his key themes was looking at GPs as providers, and whether GP provision may be covered by Competition Act and whether or not extended primary care provision may be exempt from the NHS provider licencing regime.

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About the author: Cassander Grey works for a PCT cluster somewhere in England. He is interested in health policy, the analysis and presentation of data, and reducing health inequalities. Outside of work he enjoys foreign travel, music and photography. His satirical dictionary, the NHS Lexicon, has appeared in the Health Service Journal.

Cassander Grey is a pseudonym.

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Obviously, the live stream on www.commissioningboard.nhs.uk at 1 pm today of the next board meeeting of the Nicholson Commissioning Board is the most fun you can have with your clothes on and a fast broadband connection.

That goes without saying.

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It was unsurprising to see that the Office of Fair Trading has chosen to refer the private healthcare market to the Competition Commission.

The full OFT report is here: I have copied the executive summary below for quick reference.

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Health Policy Insight can exclusively reveal that Andrew Lansley (saviour, liberator) is not the reincarnation of Edith Piaf.

Specifically, this is because in a spirit contrary to La Môme's infamous song of defiance, Our Saviour And Liberator has a regret.

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We have builders with us at the minute, which is always a good laugh. Seeing right into the DNA of how your house works is disconcerting, particularly when you find a live water pipe down the middle of a wall you're removing.

Houses live on electricity and water, coursing around it like blood and oxygen. (Gas isn't networked in the same way, usually going to only two points - boiler and kitchen hob).

When water leaks, it can fuck a house up spectacularly.

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