Welcome to this pH7 magazine Special Focus on Schizophrenia. The aim of this new parliamentary health magazine is to provoke informed debate, dialogue and interaction between politicians at Westminster and healthcare professionals who implement NHS policy on the ground.

A regular feature will be a Special Focus. If my constituency casework is anything to go by, there is no better place to start than this first Special Focus on Schizophrenia. In it you will see that a recent survey of MPs showed that the vast majority, across all parties, believe that mental health is at least as, or more important, an issue than cancer or heart disease.

We want to use pH7 as a catalyst for debate, shared learning and implementation of best practice for the benefit of patients. With our MPs poll showing politicians keen to engage on mental health issues, the mental health NSF being implemented, A Beautiful Mind informing public debate and the government giving "direction" to NICE, we have decided to set out the current issues in this Special Focus on Schizophrenia.

pH7 plan to hold a follow-up national conference in July, in association with Lilly UK. We would like the government, patient groups, politicians, healthcare professionals and NHS budget-holders to take stock of the mental health of the nation and to agree the next steps we need to take to create a world class service in this country.

If you would like more details on the conference, or to give us your feedback on pH7, please either write to us, phone us on 020 7878 1594 or e-mail us at: sarbdeep.swan@parlicom.com.

Kind regards

Dr Ian Gibson MP

Head of the Editorial Board, pH7