For the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools?

doi:10.1136/bmj.a914

Published 22 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a914
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a914

Letters

Medical guidelines

For the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Spence’s article is one of the first things I turn (electronically)to each Friday morning. So it was disappointing to see him regurgitatingthe tired old complaints about clinical guidelines—stiflingclinical freedom, imposing straitjackets, etc.¹

I chair the clinical guidelines committee at one of the largesttrusts in the country (and already I sense you smirking in thatslightly tired and ironic way we all do when we hear about thelatest addition to the festering heap of pointless committeesthat blight the life of general practitioner and hospital doctoralike) so I suppose I’m not a disinterested observer.We set the committee up for two reasons: to ensure that guidelinesin use within the trust were evidence based and had the supportof all interested parties, and to try to ensure that we didn’thave several guidelines in use for the same clinical condition,causing confusion for the end . . . [Full text of this article]