Hypertension control remains a significant challenge globally.1 Even in Europe, a region that has produced some of the best science on managing hypertension, the control rates of hypertension is poor, ranging between ~20% and 40% for most countries.2 If this was a simple issue to solve, one could ask - what do we need to ensure that the 60% to 80% of people with hypertension who are at high risk of a stroke, heart attack and other consequences, are not left behind? The first logical response would be that the ~500,000 general practitioners (GPs) in Europe3 should be clear on what the best approach is to diagnose and manage patients with hypertension. With the workload of GPs ever increasing, this guidance should be as simple and clear as possible. In 2018 the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the European Society of Hypertension (ESH) collaborated to develop a unified guideline for managing hypertension in Europe. These 2018 ESC/ESH Guidelines were well received by the scientific community to judge from the >7,1004 and >2,1005 citations (Scopus) in the two journals in which it was copublished. However, more recently these organizations developed two independent guidelines in 2023 and 2024. The 2024 ESC guidelines have had the benefit of new evidence published since the 2023 ESH guidelines, which have been incorporated into the 2024 ESC guidelines. Most importantly, though, is that the real-world impact of the 2018 guidelines on improving hypertension control rates is not clear. To make new guidelines more relevant, and to make sure they are implemented, guideline developers have become much more vigilant in including GPs and end users on guideline committees and liaising closely with patients in ensuring the implementation of new guidelines are feasible and acceptable for implementation by both providers and patients. [see the full article for more].