North of England evidence based guidelines development project: methods of guideline development

Abstract

use of all medicines.Campaigns to inform patients about self education would be to the public benefit. Good teamwork is essentialEncouraging the public to seek advice from the community pharmacist may lead to a greater proportion of visits to doctors resulting from referrals from the pharmacist, perhaps through formal referral forms.The change in status of prescription only medicines to pharmacy sale may also result in general practitioners referring patients to the pharmacist to purchase an over the counter medicine.The opportunities for teamworking between the two professions will grow.One way to encourage good teamwork is for general practitioners, pharmacists, and others to collaborate in the development of clinical treatment guidelines for specific conditions-for example, dyspepsia.I' The process of developing such guidelines has resulted in better understanding of different levels of professional care and produced guidelines that were welcomed by community pharmacists.Other initiatives to help integrate community pharmacists to achieve a recognised place in the primary health care team must be formally pursued.