title: Buying health.
abstract: THE GOOD NEWS in the government's strategy for the new NHS is the official recognition of the need for nurse involvement in commissioning. 'The bad news is that some influential senior managers have been heard to say that the inclusion of nurses in the White Paper was an afterthought, not planned or thought through, which only happened after extensive lobbying. I do not agree with this, I think it reflected the belated realisation by the government that much high-quality expertise was being lost to the management of the NHS because of the failure to include nurses in commissioning.
authors.affiliation: Director of Commissioning for one of the first GP commissioning groups ond is currently working as on independent manogement consultant.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sim