Dr Stephen K Tagg
I feel there's a little P.Pilate thinking going on here.
Information about waiting times/ lists represents a quite complex
phenomenon with lots of uncertainties - joining, leaving, queues,
transitions etc.
Statistics (in its reporting Government performance sense) requires
simplification. Doctors of spin see that some uncertainties are open to
manipulation on the way to producing simplifications like waiting times.
Surely if the statistics were better attuned to the complex &
uncertainty of the actual process, they'd be (+) less easy to manipulate
but (-) less easy to understand. And seeing communication and
understanding is what statistics are all about - that's where there's a
hand-washing dilemma. Of course the other alternative is to explain
complexity.
I suppose P.Pilate should have said something about being the wrong age
and gender in occupied Palestine!
Dr Stephen K Tagg
Long-time radstats lurker
Department of Marketing, University of Strathclyde
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