Dr. John Devlin:

As I mentioned, what we are trying to do in this group is bring the clinical community with us.

We have national standards for clinical development, under the ages of the national clinical effectiveness committee. This work has been prioritised for the next four months and clinicians will be put through it. There are various standards. What will come out at the far end will be standards which, we hope, will be robust and understood and worked by clinical professionals. Part of the remit of the group is education and general awareness. These are new developments and there may be differences across the medical profession regarding the value of certain new agents, therapies and so on. It is very important that the clinical community buy into them. The way that can be done is by engaging with professional bodies to make sure they are part of the processes. When the report is done and dusted, there will be a job of work to be done in education at undergraduate and postgraduate level to ensure the guidance developed is workable and will be implemented.