The philosophy of clinical practice guidelines: purposes, problems, practicality and implementation

There are a number of technical and professional challenges to the use of clinical practice guidelines in the United Kingdom. Until recently, many guidelines have been consensus-based rather than being explicitly linked to evidence of effectiveness and have also been of variable quality. Moreover, clarity of purpose has been lacking with some guidelines being developed as a means of limiting access to secondary care rather than as a means of assisting clinical decision-making. Implementation of new research into practice and of clinical practice guideline recommendations shares many of the same barriers to changing clinician behaviour. Without local support systems to assist with implementation, including clinical audit programmes and methods of feeding back information on current practice, it is unlikely that guidelines will change practice in the majority of clinicians. Progress on the implementation of guidelines in the British National Health Service is discussed.