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Following the results from last year’s survey, Guidelines in Practice underwent a significant update, with new content and a fresh contemporary design introduced in January 2007.

As review articles on newly published guidance and the coverage of the GMS contract and QOF indicators were of particular importance to you, these features have been continued—with the updated QOF indicators due for publication in 2008, we will be highlighting what these updates mean to primary care in a series of articles and supplements next year.

A greater breadth of clinical guidance is now covered by Guidelines in Practice, with the inclusion of articles on working party guidelines alongside NICE guidance, SIGN guidelines, and independent professional body guidelines—the different article types are highlighted by a simple colour-coded key, as used in the Guidelines handbook.

Last year’s survey results also showed that readers were interested in articles on the implementation of new and existing guidelines, and these have been featured throughout the year. Another addition has been the inclusion of key points for GPs, along with practice-based commissioning take home messages within appropriate articles, to support those primary care professionals who are now more involved in commissioning decisions.

As there have been a number of changes to the journal this year, the results of the 2007 readership survey were awaited with interest.

Readership survey 2007

The survey was distributed with the May issue of Guidelines in Practice and the first 500 responses were analysed by Brainsell Ltd. The main aims of the survey were to assess how the journal is used by practices and organisations, and to determine the reaction to the 2007 updates.

The majority of respondents were GPs, with clinical governance leads, prescribing advisers and leads, PCT members, pharmacists, and nurse practitioners making up most of the rest of the group.

When asked ‘In what ways is Guidelines in Practice used by you and your practice/organisation?’ nearly all respondents (94%) stated ‘keeping up to date’, with 71% also listing ‘guideline and/or formulary development’ (see Figure 1). As it is the aim of Guidelines in Practice to help GPs and other healthcare professionals to practise evidence-based medicine and implement national guidelines locally, it was very satisfying to see that 53% of those who replied used the journal to implement guidelines and/or the GMS contract.

Of those who responded to the question ‘Please indicate how you feel about the updates to Guidelines in Practice’, a significant majority rated the new focus (i.e. the shift from guideline development to implementation) and the new design and content as ‘Useful’ to ‘Very useful’. Readers’ comments included: ‘Guidelines in Practice is useful to me as it changes my practise from what I have traditionally done to what I should be doing based on evidence’ (GP, East Anglia), and, ‘The clear accessible advice is very useful for keeping up to date and implementing changes’ (GP, Didcot).

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your valued feedback, which helps us to provide a journal that supports you in both the provision of evidence-based healthcare and the development of your own local strategies.G

Figure 1: The ways in which Guidelines in Practice is used by its readers

Julia Morris, Editor
julia.morris@mgp.ltd.uk