This year we are on course to publish three editions of the Bulletin, the challenge then being to sustain this level of activity. In general, the various sub-specialty CPD Bulletins have been well received, but after the novelty of having such a medium to address issues of clinical governance and continuing education, we now face the longer term problems of financial viability and finding people to do the editorial work. There may be pressure on us to merge with another Bulletin, partly because of our relatively small number of subscribers, and partly to spread the work; we shall have difficulty in resisting this unless we can get every consultant Clinical Immunologist, Allergist and Head of tissue typing, with our SpRs, in the UK to subscribe and be more active in submitting reviews and case reports. Your Board will be working on this over the next six months, realising that many of us have difficulty in deciding on priorities when faced with an escalating administrative workload. Nevertheless, I am still optimistic that our Bulletin will eventually be accepted as the best way of keeping everyone up to date and interested in our fields as they mature during this decade.

The most important piece of ‘gossip’ over the past six months is that we are getting close to having Specialised Services for both Immunology and Allergy. The Commissioners responsible now have definitions for these services which have been agreed by your clinical representatives and which should be accepted by all Health Authorities by the end of the year. Specialised Immunology focuses on the provision of services for Primary Immunodeficiency, while a Specialised Allergy service will provide facilities for de-sensitisation, challenge testing and the care of complex cases; these centres will also be expected to act as a ‘hub’ for clinical governance and audit within their region. I hope to publish the definitions in the next issue, with a further update on progress towards our goal of starting these services in April 2002.