The Eastern Health Board's AIDS / Drug Addiction Service endeavours to standardise clinical policies and procedures in order to develop best practices guidelines based on current clinical and administrative practice and evaluative research. These guidelines will facilitate and inform staff in clinical / administrative decision making. They will support and guide staff in improving service quality by reducing variations in care particularly in clinical or administrative areas where research evidence or consensus is lacking. They reflect the state of current knowledge about effective and appropriate care. These regionally developed guidelines will form a template from which clinical teams may further develop additional guidelines tailored to local conditions.