Editorial

What is a rheumatologist for? Ask any individual rheumatologist, and I suspect that the answer will be clear. Collectively, however, our specialty includes the management of a diverse range of conditions ranging from life-threatening vasculitis, inflammatory arthritis and osteoporosis to soft tissue pain and chronic pain. In the UK, current dogma from the health commissioners dictates that much of this activity might be taken away from the specialty and given to other clinicians such as primary care doctors and nurse or physio-therapy practitioners on the grounds of cost saving. This change in emphasis is potentially a major threat to rheumatology as a specialty and the rheumatologist as an individual. This reflects the suggestion in a recent White Paper ‘Our health, our care, our say ’ [1] that care be devolved from secondary to primary care. In England, the Department of Health has just publishe