{"id":32118,"date":"2014-08-07T12:36:48","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T11:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=32118"},"modified":"2014-08-07T12:36:59","modified_gmt":"2014-08-07T11:36:59","slug":"chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Hopson: NHS waiting times\u2014the long and the short of it"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/03\/chris_hopson.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-31244\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/03\/chris_hopson-150x110.jpg\" alt=\"chris_hopson\" width=\"150\" height=\"110\" \/><\/a>Health secretary Jeremy Hunt\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/speeches\/nhs-waiting-times-job-not-done\">speech earlier this week<\/a>, which called on NHS hospitals to clear their backlog of patients waiting more than a year\u00a0for treatment,\u00a0rightly pointed to the personal consequences of each individual case on the waiting list. While recognising that some delays are the result\u00a0of\u00a0patient choice or good clinical reasons, waiting for treatment if you are immobile, in discomfort, or in pain can be distressing and debilitating\u2014the more so the longer the wait.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why the Foundation Trust Network (FTN) and its members strongly welcomed the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/349\/bmj.g5011\">government&#8217;s pledge\u00a0in June of \u00a3250m<\/a>\u00a0(\u20ac314m; $421m) to reduce waiting lists, and <a href=\"http:\/\/m.hsj.co.uk\/5071920.article\">the \u00a3400m (\u20ac504m; $674m)\u00a0announced at the same time<\/a>\u00a0to support the urgent and emergency care pathway this winter. The FTN has consistently called for extra funding to improve patient care and for any announcements to be made as far in advance as possible. We also recognise how difficult it is for health ministers to find such funding at the moment, given the need to reduce the overall budget deficit.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>But we should also, at the same time, recognise that this approach has limitations.<\/p>\n<p>Firstly, short term, non-recurrent injections of cash\u2014while welcome\u2014are never the most efficient way of funding care. A significant proportion of the waiting list money will, for example, have to be spent on agency staff and premium weekend rates because it has to be used within a set, short period of time over the summer months. Better that we allocate this money as part of mainstream NHS funding, so providers can ensure the best value is achieved.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly, while it is understandable that governments will want to focus on bolstering performance against targets that attract media and political attention, there\u2019s a risk that using short term cash to reinforce crude targets distorts clinical priorities. Jeremy Hunt was right in his speech to point to the distorting effects of the waiting time target regime. The introduction of an 18 week referral to treatment target had to be followed by another target\u2014for 90% of the waiting list to be less than 18 weeks\u2014which mitigated the distortions of the original target. Then we had to have another target to address long term waiters. No one would dispute the need for a clear treatment standard for patients, but better that we allow providers to set clinical priorities, and hold them to account for their overall performance within that standard.<\/p>\n<p>Thirdly, there\u2019s a real danger that ministers and arm&#8217;s length bodies will insist that short term cash injections are accompanied by burdensome, dedicated extra reporting arrangements, even though the amounts involved may be tiny in comparison to the overall budget.<\/p>\n<p>The FTN\u2019s members, for example, feel strongly that being required to submit reports and full elective waiting lists every week in effect for access to the \u00a3250 million funding is a return to unnecessary and excessive micromanagement. Better that providers account for their overall performance in a single consistent format, rather than waste energy accounting for\u2014and being micromanaged against\u2014individual penny packets.<\/p>\n<p>Dispensing odd dollops of cash at short notice also brings challenges around consistency of delivery. In the end, it is providers who have to deliver improved levels of treatment for this extra investment. But too many of our members are telling us that they are not being properly involved in how the money is being spent, that the money taking too long to distribute, or that they do not seem to be receiving any funding at all.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also worth remembering that this approach prevents the transition to the long term models of care that we desperately need\u2014for example, greater use of out of hospital care on the urgent and emergency care pathway\u2014as short term cash injections almost always prop up existing patterns of delivery. So while we should welcome the UK government\u2019s extra investment in the service, we also need to recognise that there are better ways of using this money to improve patient care.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Chris Hopson<\/strong>\u00a0is chief executive of the Foundation Trust Network (FTN), the membership organisation and trade association for NHS acute, ambulance, community, and mental health providers.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Competing interests<\/strong>: Chris Hopson is the chief executive of the Foundation Trust Network (FTN).\u00a0 The FTN is a membership organisation, which is funded through subscriptions from its members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Health secretary Jeremy Hunt\u2019s speech earlier this week, which called on NHS hospitals to clear their backlog of patients waiting more than a year\u00a0for treatment,\u00a0rightly pointed to the personal consequences [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nhs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Chris Hopson: NHS waiting times\u2014the long and the short of it - The BMJ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chris Hopson: NHS waiting times\u2014the long and the short of it - The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Health secretary Jeremy Hunt\u2019s speech earlier this week, which called on NHS hospitals to clear their backlog of patients waiting more than a year\u00a0for treatment,\u00a0rightly pointed to the personal consequences [...]More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bmjdotcom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-07T11:36:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-08-07T11:36:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/03\/chris_hopson-150x110.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bmj_latest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bmj_latest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2014\\\/08\\\/07\\\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2014\\\/08\\\/07\\\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"Chris Hopson: NHS waiting times\u2014the long and the short of it\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-07T11:36:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-08-07T11:36:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2014\\\/08\\\/07\\\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":739,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2014\\\/08\\\/07\\\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2014\\\/03\\\/chris_hopson-150x110.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"NHS\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2014\\\/08\\\/07\\\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2014\\\/08\\\/07\\\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2014\\\/08\\\/07\\\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\\\/\",\"name\":\"Chris Hopson: NHS waiting times\u2014the long and the short of it - The BMJ\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2014\\\/08\\\/07\\\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2014\\\/08\\\/07\\\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2014\\\/03\\\/chris_hopson-150x110.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-07T11:36:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-08-07T11:36:59+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2014\\\/08\\\/07\\\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2014\\\/08\\\/07\\\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2014\\\/08\\\/07\\\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2014\\\/03\\\/chris_hopson.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2014\\\/03\\\/chris_hopson.jpg\",\"width\":160,\"height\":110},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2014\\\/08\\\/07\\\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Chris Hopson: NHS waiting times\u2014the long and the short of it\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/\",\"name\":\"The BMJ\",\"description\":\"Helping doctors make better decisions.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The BMJ\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2018\\\/05\\\/The-BMJ-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/files\\\/2018\\\/05\\\/The-BMJ-logo.jpg\",\"width\":852,\"height\":568,\"caption\":\"The BMJ\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/bmjdotcom\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/bmj_latest\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\",\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"BMJ\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chris Hopson: NHS waiting times\u2014the long and the short of it - The BMJ","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Chris Hopson: NHS waiting times\u2014the long and the short of it - The BMJ","og_description":"Health secretary Jeremy Hunt\u2019s speech earlier this week, which called on NHS hospitals to clear their backlog of patients waiting more than a year\u00a0for treatment,\u00a0rightly pointed to the personal consequences [...]More...","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/","og_site_name":"The BMJ","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bmjdotcom\/","article_published_time":"2014-08-07T11:36:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-08-07T11:36:59+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/03\/chris_hopson-150x110.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"BMJ","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bmj_latest","twitter_site":"@bmj_latest","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"BMJ","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/"},"author":{"name":"BMJ","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#\/schema\/person\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe"},"headline":"Chris Hopson: NHS waiting times\u2014the long and the short of it","datePublished":"2014-08-07T11:36:48+00:00","dateModified":"2014-08-07T11:36:59+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/"},"wordCount":739,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/03\/chris_hopson-150x110.jpg","articleSection":["NHS"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/","name":"Chris Hopson: NHS waiting times\u2014the long and the short of it - The BMJ","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/03\/chris_hopson-150x110.jpg","datePublished":"2014-08-07T11:36:48+00:00","dateModified":"2014-08-07T11:36:59+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/03\/chris_hopson.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/03\/chris_hopson.jpg","width":160,"height":110},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/08\/07\/chris-hopson-nhs-waiting-times-the-long-and-the-short-of-it\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Chris Hopson: NHS waiting times\u2014the long and the short of it"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/","name":"The BMJ","description":"Helping doctors make better decisions.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#organization","name":"The BMJ","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/05\/The-BMJ-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2018\/05\/The-BMJ-logo.jpg","width":852,"height":568,"caption":"The BMJ"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bmjdotcom\/","https:\/\/x.com\/bmj_latest"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/#\/schema\/person\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe","name":"BMJ","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"BMJ"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}