Recommendation 15

NHS Digital told us that for the people whom it had identified and added centrally to the list, in line with the clinical criteria set by the chief medical officers, there is very little variation by area.30 DHSC acknowledged that it has seen variation in regions, and in local areas clinicians would have adjusted their approaches when adding people. DHSC explained that in a few cases it tried to understand whether variation reflected a genuine underlying illness, or different thresholds for adding people to the list.31