COMMUNITY CARE - THE FIRST YEAR - COMMUNITY CARE IN BASSETLAW .1.

Last April the United Kingdom's system for providing community care-practical and social care for ill and disabled people who need help with daily life-was changed in an effort to make it better and more efficient.(1) The BMJ ran a series of articles about the changes that included descriptions of community care in four places: Gwent in Wales, Bassetlaw in Nottinghamshire, Northern Ireland, and Newcastle in north east England.(2-5) In this and the next three articles we look at what has happened to community care over the past year in these places.