Government delays multibuy regulation again based on two core arguments:

i) supporting shoppers through the cost of living crisis
ii) the regulation would undermine free choice

Interestingly, it does not question the efficacy of the policy. 🧵
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-659367… Do discounts help us save money?

Government looked at this extensively:

UK has some of the highest discounts in the World, with a ~£634 reduction on a typical household’s annual bill (in 2015)

So far so good

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

Prevention is a popular response to the growing costs of ill health in the UK

But we find it hard to shift resources and policy accordingly

Our (@martincarkett @pmblakeley) new @InstituteGC report is proposing a policy architecture to make it happen.

institute.global/policy/fit-fut… In summary, we need to:
✅overcome short-termism (like climate change)
✅ address affordability (the most effective public health interventions are regulations)
✅incentivise and enable delivery (ICS/B/Ps are not yet set up to do this, employers have a big role to paly)

The health=wealth narrative is gaining momentum. A few considerations on where we are. 🧵*

*health is about much more than wealth which I ignore for the purpose of the below, but it goes without saying The recent popularity of the argument is clearly driven by the overall gov focus on economic growth. Most perm sects will have asked their department to link spending to growth over the summer. HMT will be on the receiving end of many growth submissions.

A few more thoughts on charges for NHS services on the back of the Guardian piece. This clearly attracted a lot of attention and emotions 🧵
theguardian.com/politics/2022/… Firstly, I think it is absolutely appropriate to look at all options to adequately fund the NHS going forward. In principle, nothing should be off the table. It's a basic rule of good policy making.

Excellent to see this covered by @TheEconomist. A few things will have to come together to make this happen 🧵

https://twitter.com/TheEconomist/status/1550088449528668161

1) London has potential but is significantly less than the sum of its parts. Mainly due to academic snobbery and competition btw three main unis. Role of funders to incentivise collaboration rather than competition (which has its place).

#NHSBill due in the HoC in the coming days. It's complex and the biggest change since 2012. Difficult task for a new SoS to get to the bottom of the detail quickly. Not understanding the detail outside the Lansley circle was the biggest issue in 2012. What to focus on? 1/ There is the obvious: NHS will not succeed unless social care does. There are some tangible leavers to pull about funding and rules and most of the policy work has been done. Just ask @RichardnotatKF. It's now about politics 2/

A few thoughts on potential options for where next with GP data sharing now that the programme has been paused based on our experience in London over the past 2 years. Apologies for a long🧵

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…

1/15 Firstly, let’s give credit to @NHSX @NHSDigital and @JimBethell for calling a pause. This is never easy once a policy has been announced and will attract the inevitable victorious shoulder clapping amongst some. 2/15

Attempt to understand differences 🇬🇧/🇩🇪 #Covid19 experience. Data comparability is challenging, and inevitably some of this may need further scrutiny. However, I do think there are a number of issues which warrant a discussion

1/16 (sorry) Comparing some key indicators (🇬🇧/🇩🇪):

Cases +test
220/173k

Gender
M 56/48%
W 48/52%

# ICU beds used at peak
54%~3.3k (England)/<10% ~ 2.8k
Note: 🇩🇪 5x #ICU beds

Covid in 🇬🇧 hospital beds at peak 20k
🇩🇪 had 5k of Covid+ hospitalised at peak (not the same as beds)

2/16