I am troubled by hospital league tables for many reasons, but the biggest reason is that I don’ t think, were I using them for myself or a family member, I would rely on them. I think I would rely most on a nurse or a junior doctor telling me if they would, or wouldn’t, be admitted for care where they worked.

The NHS for some time has bought back it’s own data (essentially) from organisations purporting to tell them how they are doing: I don’t really know, in real life patient and doctor terms, what “a web-based benchmarking tool that enables both local and national comparative investigation and trend analysis to inform effective strategic decision making” (from the Dr Foster website) actually means.

Anyway, a bit of a resistance is mounting. See this analysis . The other problem is that if a hospital is doing badly, I reckon it needs more help, not less. As is the current arrangement.