Government manipulation of public information

It is astonishing the extent to which politician and civil servants are going to prevent the full truth about the health reforms being revealed. The political boasts that waiting lists are falling, that more patients are being treated, that more is being achieved without the hospital budgets going into deficit -- all this looks rather different when tested against reality. Yes, more patients are being treated but no more than the usual annual increase; yes, the waiting lists are falling because some relatively straightforward but non-urgent cases are now being seen ahead of complicated but urgent ones, others are simply being struck off the lists, others are not getting on at all and being forced to wait longer for outpatient services; true, less hospitals are expected to be in deficit but at the expense of closing beds and cutting services.