NHS Waiting Lists

Watch out for the dead cat.

The "dead cat strategy" was associated with Lynton Crosby, Boris Johnson's political strategist. He used it as a communication tactic to divert attention away from a specific issue by introducing a shocking or controversial topic, symbolised by the "dead cat."

Currently, the UK Prime Minister is on a war footing, facing yet another threat, and demanding an increase in UK defence spending. While Keir Starmer ramps up the danger - the dead cat - the public's focus is shifted away from the real issues at hand.

Whenever politicians do shift the focus of attention, the TTE office is minded to ask what it is we are being distracted from.

Two years ago, you couldn’t ignore the problem of the intractable NHS waiting lists.

Intractable waiting lists

In July 2023, we reported that more than 7 million people were waiting for a hospital specialist or surgeon, or whatever. Over 3 million patients were waiting for more than 18 weeks, and 370,000 were waiting for over a year for treatment.

NHS England was all glee when the backlo…