When Stephen Dunn, former head of policy at NHS Midlands and East (RIP), tweeted a link to a video about the “friends and family” test last week, End Game was excited.

Crayon at the ready, tongue sticking out the corner of the mouth for added concentration, End Game prepared to scribble a list of arguments to unfurl next time those pesky nurses started moaning on (again) about how the test was a load of old bunkum generating a load of made up numbers with no statistical value. 

The video showed was nurses talking about how valuable the test was proving! How refreshingly counter intuitive. Apparently they were enjoying the qualitative feedback they were getting from patients.

Indeed, the feedback will probably prove jolly useful to the NHS.

But End Game would also be keen to see the nurses re-interviewed when the full national results of the test are published in July.

After all, there is a fair chance the national media will take little notice of the detailed qualitative feedback comments, and instead make a big deal of a straightforward league table ranking every trust numerically (on a “net promoter score”).

Mr Hack may well pick the bottom five trusts; liberally sprinkle with words such as “shamed”, “poor performing” and “struggling” and slap it on the page. Their nurses may not feel quite the same as those featured in the YouTube video.