NICE was the clear winner here for its U-turn on guidelines advising GPs not to routinely prescribe paracetamol in osteoarthritis. Facing criticism that the recommendation would have a drastic impact on GPs’ pain management options, the institute promptly dropped the advice in February.
Runner-up Health secretary Jeremy Hunt will surely be disappointed to miss out on another gong, but will have to be content with taking second place in the U-turn category. His blatant volte-face came after he briefed the Daily Mail on his proposal to ‘name and shame’ GPs over their cancer diagnosis rates… and then subsequently claimed that he merely wanted to see more GP peer review of referrals.
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