Much of government health policy would never get a thumbs up from Cochrane.

It must be acknowledged, however, that it’s difficult to run randomised controlled trials on the voting public before implementing policy — at least at scale.

Governments planning a change tend to perform what researchers would call an uncontrolled time-series analysis — a before-and-after look at a policy intervention.

But the case of the Queensland Government’s mandatory nurse-to-patient ratios in hospitals is different and, according to researchers, a potential model for others.