Editorial

It was Benjamin Franklin who wrote that the only two things that one can be certain of in life are death and taxes. Those of us working in the health service in the United Kingdom would probably want to add change as the third certainty. No one was surprised, therefore, when New Labour, in their first White Paper on health, introduced us to a vocabulary of reforms with their now widely-used initials and acronym. These included HIPs (health improvement programmes), NSFs (national service frameworks), NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence), CHI (Commission for Health Improvement) and, to replace fund-holding, a new organization for general practice, the PCG or Primary Care Group.