The tendency to support failure: A common theme in the health service’s ritual hand wringing about why it fails to stimulate radical changes and new market entrants. It was one inevitably raised at the Healthcare Innovation Expo this week, the bonanza of idea exchanging - and product flogging - held annualy in a shed on London’s eastern fringe.

And so it was at one particular Expo break-out session that it was suggested the NHS Commissioning Board (the default home for all functions) should take responsibility for funding start-ups. One daring contributor, who better remain nameless, observed: “At the moment the commissioning board does seem to be doing quite a job of supporting failure.” This at the event where TV cameras had been banned from filming board chief executive Sir David Nicholson, too.