In the Prehospital Care section of this edition of the Journal McKenzie & Bevan propose the formation of a subspecialty of prehospital and retrieval medicine. They argue that the standards and varying provision of prehospital medical care compare poorly with the more uniform consultant led Accident & Emergency services and suggest that the new GP contract, development of GP’s with special interests, licensing and re-validation and the reform of postgraduate medical education all make this the appropriate time to form a new subspeciality.

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