Abstract
The author describes his Royal College-funded tour of Scandinavian rheumatology units in 1990. He compares the funding, organisation and staffing of these units with those of their British counterparts and concludes that more local control, accountability and funding might improve health services. Consideration of the greater use of short-stay and day hospital facilities and the often imaginative ways in which Scandinavian rheumatology units are integrated into their hospitals may lessen the insecurity that many British rheumatology units currently face. Most pressing is the need for general agreement about ways of achieving protection within the NHS for the interests of those with chronic disease.
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