David Buck

On Tuesday @instituteforgovernment.org.uk will publish the first part of Performance Tracker 2025, our flagship annual stocktake of the state of public services

We’re doing things slightly differently this year, so I thought I’d do a quick thread explaining some of the changes

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Was in conversation wirh a few innovation and med tec peeps recently

Was all a bit "modern stents and TAVI have saved lives. It’s cool. Innovation is going to save lives. And if it’s better than what replaced it then all’s ok...."

I mentioned my old friend “opportunity cost”.

Cue tumbleweed

Only 3 local authorities in England have air quality better than the recommended WHO guideline pollutant level Search for your local authority

Where we live – and the air we breathe – can shape our health, including how long we can expect to live.

Explore the data on air quality for local authorities across England on our newly updated Local Authority Dashboard ⬇️

https://bit.ly/4pNdG1w

In a letter published today in the BMJ, we call for urgent action to correct misperceptions of vaping.

As long as public perceptions of vaping are misaligned with evidence, the opportunity for vaping to further reduce smoking is being missed.

www.bmj.com/content/391/... @ashorguk.bsky.social

The tough choices at the heart of the government’s dispute with big pharma The government has been locked in a dispute with pharmaceutical companies for a number of months over how much the NHS pays for new branded medicines. Sally Gainsbury and Huseyin Naci set out the issu...

Policy alert: The tough choices at the heart of the government’s dispute with big pharma
@nuffieldtrust.org.uk
www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/th...

It always surprises me that minimum unit pricing isn't pitched as a plan to save the Great British Boozer.

Great to see this published, though it's all change and for health inequalities, sticking the course is key despite institutional upheaval (again)... bmjopen.bmj.com/content/15/1...

How over- and underrepresented are different causes of death in the media?

Another way to visualize this data is to measure how over- or underrepresented each cause is.

To do this, we calculate the ratio between a cause’s share of deaths and its share of news articles.

I could just be a grumpy old fella though.

I think it's got more transactional, less free-flowing, more constrained, too task-led. Still great people with great ideas, but the envionments/incentive systems are less fertile. And learning is bitesize/search led/immediate - not about evolving ideas/thoughts/strands over time. #shortcuts.

NHS - Race and Health Observatory

Health economists: Very interesting research tender from NHS Race and Health Observatory - Calculating the Cost of Racism in Health and Health Care - deadline October 17. nhsrho.org/news/cost-of...

Which MPs showed their support for #MakeHealthEqual at the Conservative party conference? 🟢

It's been motivating to have Lord Davies of Gower join our champions network, alongside over 100 cross-party MPs, as well as the Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Stuart MP offer his support for our work. 👇

Everything is now much harder to find (govt and civil society stuff). And you only know that if you know about it. Things have submerged.

Fixing Social Care: The Six Key Problems And How To Tackle Them Different people have different opinions about what’s ‘wrong’ with social care and how to fix it. This long read outlines the six key issues and the options cited to tackle them.

The social care system is not fit for purpose. Many people can't access the care and support they need and others are left facing catastrophic costs. Our new long read outlines the six key issues and the options cited to tackle them. https://bit.ly/3VPOdH3

Can Tackling Waiting Lists Get Britain's Economy Moving Again? | The King's Fund New analysis from the Office for National Statistics and NHS England explores whether reducing waiting lists could help more people return to work and boost productivity.

Is a healthier nation a wealthier nation?

For the first time, the ONS and NHS England, have linked millions of pseudonymised patient-level data on hospital waiting lists with individual-level data from HMRC.

Siva Anandaciva explores the findings. https://bit.ly/4gYwkze

The tough choices at the heart of the government’s dispute with big pharma The government has been locked in a dispute with pharmaceutical companies for a number of months over how much the NHS pays for new branded medicines. Sally Gainsbury and Huseyin Naci set out the issu...

I’d add that this comprehensive review by Sally Gainsbury and Huceyin Nasi makes the same argument: www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/th...
It is unconscionable that we accede to big pharma.

A 2025 review in the Lancet (www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... shows that our current spending on new medicines skews overall health spend away from more effective interventions. But it looks like we are about to spend more on meds, thus depriving our population of more effective healthcare.

Join the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government for an online webinar: Understanding Awaab’s Law, exploring the link between housing and health.

forms.office.com/pages/respon...

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

DHSC GP adviser steps down Wes Streeting's neighbourhood health and primary care lead is stepping down, after less than a year in the role and having recently launched an implementation programme.

[coughs] www.hsj.co.uk/primary-care...

NHS England » World leading NHS trial to boost health and support people in work NHS England » World leading NHS trial to boost health and support people in work

3/3. That's why its great that the techniques behind this work are also supporting the wider health and growth accelerator programme, more of this sort of stuff please! www.england.nhs.uk/2024/12/worl...

Can Tackling Waiting Lists Get Britain's Economy Moving Again? | The King's Fund New analysis from the Office for National Statistics and NHS England explores whether reducing waiting lists could help more people return to work and boost productivity.

2/3. The commentary from Siva Anandaciva is as important as the paper inc arguing that these techiniques are welcome, but need to be applied to upstream preventive interventions inc outside the NHS, to balance the 'evidence', this is where the real gains are www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...

1/3. A ground-breaking paper, & commentary, on @thekingsfund.bsky.social website today - using linked data on the connection between #health & #economy from @nhsengland.bsky.social & ONS on the economic #payback from meeting waiting list targets. Paper assets.kingsfund.org.uk/f/256914/x/6...

Policy Modelling for Health lunchtime webinar: What Makes a ‘Good’ Policy Simulation Model?

Upcoming lunchtime webinar from Policy Modelling for Health @healthmod.bsky.social on 23 October, midday: What Makes a ‘Good’ Policy Simulation Model? www.phiuk.org/news/events/...

Purchase price of tobacco in small retailers in Great Britain: the relationships with neighbourhood deprivation and urbanicity between 2016–2021 Background Tobacco price is an important determinant of smoking behaviour. Using electronic point-of-sales (EPOS) data, this study assesses purchase price of factory-made cigarettes (FMC) and roll-you...

📢 New paper published in @bmjtobacco-control.bsky.social Using electronic point-of-sales (EPOS) data, this study assesses purchase price of factory-made cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco across neighbourhood deprivation and urban/rural status in Britain. #TobaccoResearch #PublicHealth

A scene on a busy, beautifully tended allotment. The star of the scene is the wonderfully delicate, slightly hazy October light.

Other work by the Ladybird artists
‘October’
(From a 1958 calendar by the always fabulous Ronald Lampitt)

An awful lot of "public health" is delivered by staff who dont have those two words in their job title

The workforce really really matters
We can do better on this

Good report from @rsph.bsky.social

How polarised is Britain? Behind media perceptions of a sharpening political divide is a more complicated picture

How polarised is Britain? www.ft.com/content/c7e4... via @financialtimes.com

The trust league tables are not robust, meaningful or fair Matthew Hankins and Dr Jonathan Pearson-Stuttard highlight the concerns arising from the use of NHS trust rankings and suggest solutions to make them more robust, relevant and just.

www.hsj.co.uk/quality-and-...