Claiming a lineage traceable to Sir Henry Burdett's 1889 Hospitals and Charities, the venerable IHSM Year Book has slimmed down for its new edition. Admirably, it has done so without much apparent loss of content, and indeed has included some new material.

Gone, for obvious reasons, is the directory of GP fundholders; but in its place is a shorter guide to GP commissioning groups and a round-up of health action zones, listing the participants in each. There is also the near-obligatory guide to the NHS's 50th birthday and to the latest green and white papers.

Members and ex-members of the IHSM will doubtless use the reinstated members list to check on the institute's much-vaunted clear-up of its records. A quick and unscientific search found 7,500 members, not the 8,500 claimed. Maybe some are ex-directory.

The book's purpose is to offer comprehensive contact details for those working in or with NHS management. And, as ever, the Year Book does this as well as any annual publication can, given the whirligig of change all around us.