The processes and costs of local guideline development: Experiences from the Path.Finder NHS consortium

The Path.Finder NHS consortium consists of ten acute hospitals sharing a common approach to the production and dissemination of local information for primary care, including clinical practice guidelines. Ten local guidelines were studied across four clinical areas: dyspepsia, lipids, eczema, and menorrhagia. Local guideline developers largely appear to be unconvinced that investment of time and resources in "proper" guideline development is cost-effective. At the same time, primary care professionals' views about future NICE guidelines may have been coloured by their current much more variable experience. Successful implementation of local guidelines is unlikely to be straightforward.