End Game has been handed a set of emails showing how Department of Health flacks handled(ish) one of the more recent NHS crises.

They made interesting reading, considering how divorced from each other NHS England and the Department of Health are supposed to be post-liberation of the NHS.

In one, a Richmond House-based media relations man was found calling for a senior NHS England director to be “woken up” before said director’s reputation was “completely shredded” by hostile press coverage.

The former-journalist author warned that the media would declare “open season” on poor old NHS England unless the operationally independent organisation took urgent action.