Dealing with Clinical Risk: Implications of the Rise of Evidence-Based Health Care

This article considers the nature of risk in health care and the use the National Health Service (NHS) makes of risk management. It explores how the concept of risk has been challenged by the rise of 'evidence-based' health care, accompanied and accelerated by a decline in professional prestige, status and mystique and much greater use of external measurement and controls as part of the New Public Management. The nature of evidence-based health care is outlined and the implications of the use of guidelines and other practice aids are explored. Finally, the article discusses how evidence-based health care is affecting our views of clinical risk.