With the countless consultations the government has carried out on its myriad reforms of public services, you might think they'd have got the knack of listening by now.
But ministers seem increasingly afflicted by selective deafness as Lord Darzi's appearance before the health select committee yesterday demonstrated.
When questioned by MPs, Darzi denied any suggestion that political targets were hindering efforts to tackle the rising rate of hospital superbugs.
His denial might not seem quite so ridiculous were it not for the fact that a damning report into Britain's deadliest superbug outbreak, which laid much of the blame on staff being distracted by financial and waiting-time targets, is still making headlines.
It seems implausible to imagine that Darzi has not read the Healthcare Commission's report. So we must conclude he has developed the same blindspot that apparently prevents his ministerial colleagues from missing any criticism of government policy in official reports.
This affliction would seem to be the only explantion for the Department of Health's reaction to criticism from nurse of the year, Justine Whitaker, who last week announced she was quitting the NHS because she was sick of the constant political reforms.
Without any apparent irony, a DH spokeswoman replied that it acknowleged that too much change could affect staff morale and that was why Lord Darzi was carrying out yet another review of the NHS. You couldn't make it up.
