Red faces at the NHS Information Centre, after it published – and then withdrew – a report saying that Christmas Eve was the top day of the year for births, and Boxing Day was bottom.

The figures were plausible, if hospitals were inducing births early to clear the wards for Christmas Day. According to the report, Christmas Eve 2008 had 2,266 deliveries, 235 more than the next highest day, September 25. The lowest number of deliveries was on Boxing Day 2008 (1,349).
 
Scribes were poised to turn this into a story when a second email landed at lunchtime. CORRECTION, it said. What actually peaks on Christmas Eve is not deliveries, but discharges after births, a rather different thing. The report, which was already on the centre’s website, has been withdrawn for correction.
 
Oh dear. Giving journalists a story and then taking it away is like tossing a bun to a bear and then trying to grab it back. The Daily Mail declined to play, running the story under this headline, with lots of quotes and a subtle shimmy in the middle where it acknowledged that the figures covered discharges and not births, despite the headline.