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More or Less: Behind the Stats

Missed appointments, graduate pay, plus cocaine on bank notes

More or Less: Behind the Stats

BBC

Business, Mathematics, Science, News Commentary, News

4.63.5K Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2018

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Did missed appointments cost the NHS £1 billion last year? New figures published recently suggest that the financial cost to the NHS for missed appointments was £1 billion last year. But our listeners are curious. How has this figure been worked out? And don’t missed appointments actually ease the pressure on an overcrowded system? Graduate pay – is it always higher than non-graduates’ pay? It is often claimed that if you go to university and get a degree, you will earn more than those who do not. But is that always true? We take a look to see if there are occasions when having a degree makes little difference or whether the benefit of a degree has changed over time. How much cocaine is on a bank note? Tim Harford speaks to Richard Sleeman who works for a firm, Mass Spec Analytical, that specialises in working out how much cocaine can be found on bank notes across the country. Do some parts of the country have more cocaine on their notes than others? Is it true that 99% of bank notes in London have cocaine on them? Is it true that one in five can’t name an author of literature? Last year the Royal Society of Literature made this claim – but what was it based on? It turns out a polling company found that 20 percent questioned failed to name a single author. Should we be surprised? We took a look at the data. Diet Coke Habit The New York Times claims that Donald Trump drinks ‘a dozen’ Diet Cokes a day. With each can of 330ml containing 42mg of caffeine - what impact, if any, could this have on the President’s health?

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the BBC.

0:03.0

Hello and welcome to a brand new series of more or less,

0:07.0

weekly number wrangling on your behalf with me, Tim Halfard.

0:11.0

This week, we pondered Donald Trump's consumption of diet coke,

0:15.0

and the UK's consumption of, well, a different kind of coke,

0:18.0

and whether it can be detected on our banknotes.

0:21.0

We ask whether it can possibly be true that 20% of people

0:25.0

can't name a single writer of literature,

0:28.0

and does going to university pay,

0:31.0

not in terms of cultural and intellectual refreshments,

0:34.0

such things are without price, of course,

0:36.0

but in terms of cold, hard, cocaine-dusted cash.

0:39.0

But before any of that, you may have seen this claim in the news.

0:43.0

Patients missing their appointments cost the NHS £1 billion last year.

0:48.0

The money wasted could have funded one million more cataract operations,

0:53.0

or 250,000 hit-proplacements, says Chief Nursing Officer.

0:58.0

Jane Cummings, the NHS' top nurse, issued a statement

1:02.0

pleading with patients to take their appointments seriously

1:05.0

to help the overstretch service save money.

1:08.0

Now, you loyal listeners are a cynical bunch,

1:11.0

and we had a small flurry of emails saying things like this.

1:14.0

In the Guardian, it stated the cost of missed NHS hospital appointments

...

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