The IFS interactive NHS waiting lists calculator has been awarded the 2022 Harding Prize for Trustworthy Communication by the Winton Centre for Risk & Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge.
The NHS waiting lists calculator was developed by IFS researchers George Stoye, Max Warner and Ben Zaranko, and allows users to simulate how waiting lists may change over the next four years under different assumptions.
The tool was called by the judges a ‘ground-breaking’ piece of ‘communication.’ One states that: “Playing with this tool, I feel I have seen the future in democratising the models which increasingly shape our lives.”
David Spiegelhalter, Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk & Evidence Communication, commented that: “We are bombarded by messaging that purports to be informing us, but is actually trying to manipulate our emotions and persuade us to think or act in a certain way - say by inducing anxiety, prematurely reassuring, or only telling one side of the story. This prize celebrates those who genuinely try and tell it how it is, to help us all understand more and make better decisions.”
Find the NHS waiting lists calculator here, and our IFS analysis on NHS waiting lists so far here.
Authors
George Stoye
I completed a PhD at UCL in 2020. My work examines the drivers of variation in the quantity and quality of healthcare provided to different patients.
Max Warner
Max joined the IFS in 2020 as a research economist in the Healthcare Sector, with a focus on the NHS labour force and adult social care in England.
Ben Zaranko
Ben is a Senior Research Economist and an editor of the IFS Green Budget. His work focuses on the health and social care system and UK fiscal policy.
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