[Guidelines of the Dutch College of Family Practitioners]

The Dutch College of General Practitioners (NHG) produces scientifically founded guidelines for general practice. They mark the emancipation of General Practice into a specialism in its own right and are used for education and quality control. They differ from national and international consensus guidelines, in that they are developed by general practitioners only, and that notice is taken of the specific predictive value of signs and tests in the setting of general practice. Moreover they usually go into more detail. NHG Standards are provided with additional Teaching Packages for use in comprehensive programme of continuous medical education. So far, 40 Standards have been published. They were very well received by general practitioners. Diffusion to the rest of the medical profession is under way.