title: Editorial.
abstract: I am not sure that everyone working in health services is strong enough to live through the Prime Minister's promise to make public services his top priority for 2002. For many, there is a sense that too much change is going on any way. It is a very uncertain framework to be operating within when so much of the command structure is in flux across the UK. There is the increasing impact of staff shortages, the lower level of revenue than expected, the hypothecation of budgets and the lack of clarity about the implications of policy directives.