The government's healthcare policies have so far proved 'terribly boring' compared with the sort of initiative that might be expected in a second term, a leading policy analyst claimed this week. Speaking at the launch of King's College London's institute for applied health and social policy, Dr Perri 6, former research director at the Demos think-tank, predicted a fundamental assault on the professions and explicit rationing based on price. 'The government put its toe in the water with Viagra, and the one thing that has lodged in ministers' minds is that you don't do it like that. It is a story of how it is vitally important to devolve blame for rationing from ministers.' He also predicted that pioneering contracts between dentists and patients, based on outcomes rather than services, and which require patients to brush and floss, would spread to other areas of healthcare.

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