english.prescrire.org > Spotlight > Archives : 2009 > Clinical practice guidelines from the French National Authority for Health need improving

Spotlight: Archives

Every month, the subjects in Prescrire’s Spotlight.

2009 : 1 | 30 | 60 | 90

Clinical practice guidelines from the French National Authority for Health need improving

Many of the clinical practice guidelines published by France's National Authority for Health leave much to be desired.

More than half of the clinical practice guidelines produced for doctors by France's National Authority for Health (Haute autorité de santé – HAS) are of no real value in helping medical professionals committed to providing quality care.

If the HAS truly wanted to fulfil its remit of improving the quality of care, it would make patients’ interests a higher priority. The HAS should find a way to overcome the conflicts of interest that hamper its operation. If more patients, nurses and pharmacists were included in its working groups, all of the HAS guides would devote the necessary space to exposing the adverse effects of the procedures listed, so that in every individual case healthcare professionals could act with full knowledge of the associated benefits and risks.

The HAS is half way to bettering the quality of its clinical practice guidelines. It must continue in its efforts to improve its publications further, in order to promote patients’ best interests.

©Prescrire May 2009

Source: "Le point après 2 ans d'analyse des guides de pratique clinique de la Haute autorité de santé" Rev Prescrire 2009: 29 (306): 308-309.

- Click here to download Prescrire's wrap-up of 2 years of analysis of the HAS guidelines, with ratings covering 24 HAS guides (in French, pdf 250 Ko).

- More articles in Prescrire's "Spotlight"...