W e have all been there: packed shoulder to shoulder on the train while the person beside us coughs and sneezes. A protective flu jab offers some reassurance, but so does the thought that there will be a hospital bed for you, should you need it. Yet, in England, about 95% of adult hospital beds were occupied at the height of flu season last year.

If hospitals were hotels, that level of occupancy would be good business, and we would commend them for their efficiency. But do we really want a hospital to have so few beds in reserve that it’s just one bad flu week away from having to treat patients in corridors?

This is the subtle thing about efficiency. We usually assume that more of it must be better. But we can become so focused on improving one thing that we lose sight of the others. You can try to arrange your calendar so that every minute is accounted for, but you’ll soon start running over and end up behind.…