Conflicting guidelines on same topics cause doctors confusion, say MPs

Clinicians in England and Wales are confused when different sets of guidelines are published at the same time on the same topic, a parliamentary committee heard at an inquiry into the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Richard Taylor, MP, health select committee member, said that for two topics NICE and the Department of Health had recently published recommendations one soon after the other. One was about venous thromboembolism and the other on the use of alcohol in pregnancy.

NICE's clinical guidelines on the prevention of venous thromboembolism in patients having orthopaedic surgery and the Department of Health's report of the independent expert working group on the prevention of venous thromboembolism in patients admitted to hospital …