Continuing education for healthcare professionals: time to prove its worth.

With escalating financial pressures being placed upon health services, it becomes increasingly hard to justify spending on education and training. At the same time, however, primary care practitioners are being expected to take on new roles in the management of long term conditions which were once the domain of their secondary care colleagues. This Discussion paper highlights the importance of expanding the evidence base for healthcare professional training - particularly in terms of its positive effects on patient care - and emphasises how important it is that those responsible for commissioning training continue to see the importance of doing so. It cites a randomised controlled trial of education in the primary care management of rhinitis as an example of the way in which healthcare professional education can improve patients' quality of life. Without continued investment in healthcare professionals' education, the vision of high quality, guideline-driven, evidence-based health care will never come to fruition.