The image of salami slicing has long haunted public servants as they have seen their budgets whittled down over successive years.

However, last week’s HSJ Summit event was treated to a new metaphor, that of sausage making. End Game was slightly baffled at the time but we believe it to have been used in relation to the abattoir floor scrapings used in the manufacture of government forecasts for the health sector.

One female attendee resorted to the wurst use of the sausage metaphor when advocating radical action to prevent men dominating summit panels.

“The salami slicer may come out later,” she said, with a menace that made many men in the room wince.