Targets

My much loved father-in-law died in April in a North London hospital. He died from an MRSA infection, although his death certificate said bronchial pneumonia. This morning I heard a government spokesman proclaiming the great strides made in countering MRSA as a result of there being government targets for this matter. Well, one way of meeting targets is to fiddle the figures. At any event it would perhaps have been worthwhile to have a government target for the amount of excrement smeared on the lavatory walls. The ward where my father-in-law died would have brought a satisfied gleam to the eye of the administrator assigned to reporting the hospital’s achievements in this respect.