Arguing against efficiency is like arguing against motherhood and apple pie. How could anyone be against efficiency in health services? And when you look at the amounts of money needed to run a health system, as politicians frequently do, of course you want to use that money efficiently. In just about every policy or statement on health systems efficiency will be mentioned as one of the principles. The drive to privatise is argued on the basis that private companies are more efficient; because we all know that in public services we are sat surrounded by money wondering what we should do with all that excess left over after buying all …