Development and Processes

Queensland Clinical Guidelines follows a rigorous process of guideline development involving:

• Evidence based draft development and clinical lead consultation
• Working Party first consultation
• Statewide consultation
• Working Party second consultation
• Endorsement

Join the mailing list to participate in consultation and receive guideline news.

Process Overview

The timeframe to complete guideline development is within approximately 26 weeks. The timeframe may be extended where the guideline is complex or the lack of compelling evidence makes a consensus view difficult to reach.

Guideline development priorities are determined by Queensland Clinical Guidelines Steering Committee in consultation with the Statewide Maternity and Neonatal Clinical Network.

The standard development process was endorsed by Queensland Health, Patient Safety and Quality Executive Committee in 2009.

• Standard development process (PDF, 380kb) - Summary of standard process for developing new clinical guidelines

Consultation

Register your interest by joining the mailing list.

All maternity and neonatal clinicians and consumer group representatives are welcome to participate in the development of the guidelines. Participating in guideline development involves reviewing each draft of the guideline and providing feedback to the Program Team. Attendance at meetings is generally not required as consultation is largely via email.

The following roles provide consultation during in guideline development.

• Clinical Lead – Experienced clinician (Public or Private Sector) who advises on scope and clinical content throughout clinical guideline development
• Working Party – Public and Private sector clinicians, consumers and other stakeholders who provide feedback during all rounds of consultation
• Statewide consultation group – Public and private sector clinicians, consumers and other stakeholders from across Queensland, including members of the Statewide Maternity and Neonatal Clinical Network

Working party statement (PDF, 125 kB) - describes the role of working party members and usual guideline development processes.

Conflict of interest declarations are required for clinical leads and working party members. Clinical leads and Working parties are established by invitation or expression of interest.

Representatives of consumer groups are welcome to participate in guideline development. View the Consumer page to find out more.

Endorsement

Queensland clinical guidelines are endorsed by the Queensland Clinical Guidelines Steering Committee and the Statewide Maternity and Neonatal Clinical Network, Queensland Health.
This endorsement process has been adopted to provide confidence that Queensland Health will indemnify clinicians adopting these guidelines.

Continuing to use locally developed guidelines where endorsed statewide guidelines exist may expose clinicians to unnecessary risk. For further information about risk implications view the disclaimer.

Request a change

Queensland clinical guidelines are reviewed every 5 years. Guidelines may be reviewed earlier if new evidence emerges or to correct serious omissions or errors.
Changes to guidelines are recorded in the guideline supplement.

QCG welcomes feedback on all guidelines. Change requests are triaged for urgency and criticality of errors or omissions. All change requests not immediately actioned are captured in a change register and reviewed at each subsequent revision.

Collaborative guideline development with other business units or groups is welcomed. Early engagement with the Queensland Clinical Guidelines team is essential to discuss, clarify and formalise terms of the collaboration.

Contact us to discuss a collaboration.

QCG offers resources to support clinicians, consumers and decision makers to use the clinical guidelines.

We currently offer:

• Clinician education - presentations, knowledge assessments and videoconference recordings
• Implementation checklist
• Information for women, parents and carers
• Quality measures - Auditable quality measures are located in the guideline supplement

Queensland Clinical Guidelines and associated resources are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International licence.

In essence, you are free to copy and communicate the work in its current form for non-commercial purposes, as long as you attribute (reference or cite) Queensland Clinical Guidelines, Queensland Health and abide by the licence terms.

For permission to reproduce or adapt part of a clinical guideline or associated resource, provide details of your request to ip_officer@health.qld.gov.au

The preferred citation for Queensland Clinical Guidelines is:

• Queensland Clinical Guidelines. [Insert Name of Guideline]. Guideline No. [Insert Guideline Number]. Queensland Health. [Insert Year of Publication].
• Example: Queensland Clinical Guidelines. Breastfeeding initiation. Guideline No. MN14.19-V1-R19. Queensland Health. 2014.

Communication and engagement strategy (PDF, 295kB) - communication principles and methods used by QCG when engaging with stakeholders.

QCG Steering Committee members (PDF, 78kB) appointed June 2023 to June 2025.

Steering Committee Terms of Reference 2023-2025 (PDF, 83kB).

The Queensland Clinical Guidelines steering committee provides information and guidance on issues related to planning, development, implementation and evaluation of QCG. Members offer high level support to the QCG team and contribute to building strong collaborations between QCG and statewide clinicians. The membership is multidisciplinary and includes a balance of representatives from metropolitan, regional, rural and remote areas, public and private health sectors, and relevant consumer organisations.

Queensland Clinical Guidelines (QCG) is recurrently funded by Healthcare Improvement Unit, Queensland Health. QCG is hosted by Metro North Health and Hospital Service at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

Governance is via a Steering Committee to the Sponsor - Deputy Director General, Clinical Excellence Division. Steering Committee members are drawn from clinicians and consumers across Queensland and appointed for a period of two years.

Director: Professor Rebecca Kimble

Manager: Ms Jacinta Lee

Clinical Nurse/Midwife Consultant: Ms Stephanie Sutherns

Clinical Nurse/Midwife Consultant: Ms Cara Cox

Clinical Nurse/Midwife Consultant: Ms Emily Holmes

Clinical Nurse Consultant: Ms Jacqueline Plazina

This disclaimer is supplementary to, and does not replace or supersede any aspect of the Queensland Health Disclaimer.

Materials available from Queensland Clinical Guidelines are intended as a guide and provided for information purposes only. The information has been prepared using a multidisciplinary approach with reference to the best information and evidence available at the time of preparation. No assurance is given that the information is entirely complete, current, or accurate in every respect.

Clinical guidelines and associated materials are not a substitute for clinical judgement, knowledge and expertise, or medical advice. Variation from guidelines, taking into account individual circumstances may be appropriate.

Queensland clinical guidelines do not address all elements of standard practice and accepts that individual clinicians are responsible for:

• Providing care within the context of locally available resources, expertise, and scope of practice
• Supporting consumer rights and informed decision making including the right to decline intervention or ongoing management
• Advising consumers of their choices in an environment that is culturally appropriate and which enables comfortable and confidential discussion. This includes the use of interpreter services where necessary
• Ensuring informed consent is obtained prior to delivering care
• Meeting all legislative requirements and professional standards
• Applying standard precautions, and additional precautions as necessary, when delivering care
• Documenting all care in accordance with mandatory and local requirements

Queensland Health disclaims, to the maximum extent permitted by law, all responsibility and all liability (including without limitation, liability in negligence) for all expenses, losses, damages and costs incurred for any reason associated with the use of this guideline, including the materials within or referred to throughout this document being in any way inaccurate, out of context, incomplete or unavailable.