Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
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Historical Article
The origins of vaccination: no inoculation, no vaccination.
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To examine the effect of the 24-h doctors' strike on 21 June 2012 on hospital activity in English NHS hospitals. ⋯ The 24-h doctors' strike in England on 21 June 2012 significantly affected the provision of healthcare by NHS hospitals. We observed regional variations on NHS service levels on the day of the strike.
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Although clinical guidelines have an influential role in healthcare practice, their development process and the evidence they cite has been subject to criticism. This study evaluates the quality of guidelines in cardiac clinical practice by examining how they adhere to validated methodological standards in guideline development. A structured review of cardiac clinical practice guidelines published in seven cardiovascular journals between January 2001 and May 2011 was performed. ⋯ Applicability (median score, 20.80%; range, 4.20-54.20%) and editorial independence (median score, 33.30%; range, 0-62.50%) had the lowest scores. There is considerable variability in the quality of cardiac clinical practice guidelines and this has not improved over the last 10 years. Incorporating validated guideline assessment tools, such as AGREE II, may improve the quality of guidelines.