Simon Hoggart’s sketch: The lingua franca of health is less than reassuring - The Guardian 5th November 2008

Back in the Chamber, MPs were on health questions. The audience was small but passionate. Like many people who concentrate on a speciality, they have their own language which is not always accessible to the rest of us. What, for example, is a “single referral pathway”? They seem to know. Much of it is very aggressive. Everywhere you look there are “stakeholders” (who would also be unwelcome in Castle Dracula). “Infant mortality is down in spearhead areas!” one minister told us with pride. If a relative had mental health problems, would you be reassured to learn the government is “talking to key shareholders about the New Horizons project for mental health services”? And if you had diabetes, how happy would you be that Diabetes UK is running “the Silent Assassin campaign”?

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