The Sunday Times list of the most influential and inspiring people in healthcare, compiled in partnership with Debrett’s People of Today, made for interesting reading, we thought.

There were a few notable absences from the list selected by an “expert panel”, with neither the current nor incoming chief executives of NHS England thought sufficiently influential to merit inclusion.

End Game concedes such orthodox establishment choices would be far too obvious and salutes the panel for refusing to be so boring.

The embodiment of the panel’s leftfield thinking was arguably the selection of Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations.

Sir Stephen, who can always be counted on to blog about himself, duly pointed out the list was “not about how much money you have, or who shouts loudest”. Evidently.

He went on: “I know I have just written a piece with that bold headline about leaving your ego at the door, but I have to admit to being dead chuffed about this.”

End Game imagines Sir Stephen marked the occasion with a quiet moment of reflection before racing back to the coal face. No fuss required.

Still, it would have been remiss of him not to have phoned the ACEVO media team and got them to parp out a press release pronto.

The release notes Sir Stephen thought his inclusion in the list was “particularly pleasing”. End Game would never have known.