Editor’s blog Friday 13 August 2010: A round-up of Things That Are Not Surprising

Friday. Good. Time for a round-up of some Things That Are Not Surprising.

Health Service Journal has compiled the available PCT world-class commissioning assurance scores into league tables (commendably, using two different methodologies for weighting scores).

And guess what? PCTs became better at passing the world-class commissioning tests. Wow! World-class decommissioning, however, seems to remain another matter altogether

The British Broadcasting Corporation goes with the ‘discovery’ that PFI loads fixed costs onto hospitals. Oh and it might not be a bad idea for the NHS to be renegotiating the deals. Where have I heard that before?

Public Finance highlights the Coalition government’s enormous faith in mutualism for the public sector, in the shock-and-awe-inspiring shape of 12 ‘pathfinder pilots’. Which, rather brilliantly, are gong to be expertly mentored by staff from mutual posterboy the John Lewis Partnership, and also by staff from those well-known mutuals PriceWaterhouse Coopers and KPMG. Oh no, hang on, they’re management consultancies.

Still,. what’s the difference? Mutuals, management consultancies – both start with an M and end in an S. Best we adopt the Pork Pie Principle: don’t think too much about what’s in the middle.

Yrsterday’s Independent reported on courtships for consolidation in the private sector market. Saga want to get jiggy with Nestor, reportedly, to deliver services at home. There’s a sponsorship opportunity for Viagra there, no? And Tribal is allegedly doing the “bitch, you couldn’t afford me” thing to a suitor – though it is unclear whether the brush-off is to Capita or to a private equity firm.

The Guardian’s James Meikle reveasl that far too few lessons has been learned from the case of proven incompetent Dr Daniel Ubani, whose medication error with analgesia killed David Gray. You will recall that Ubani is trying to sue Gray’s sons. What a class act he is.

Meikle reports that “Health workers made more than 1,300 mistakes involving the use of strong painkilling drugs in less than a year, resulting in at least three deaths and severe harm to two other patients”. Primum non nocere, chaps.