Most previously published opinion has indicated that the medical profession is predominantly opposed to the package of NHS reforms outlined in the Government's white paper Working for Patients and especially opposed to the administration of hospitals by self-governing trusts (Lister, 1990). Yet only Whitfield et al (1989) can claim to have independently and directly polled the opinions of a representative sample of a defined population of doctors on this subject, and their survey was published two years before NHS reform began to impinge on hospital practice.