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2003/021 NICE launches new clinical guideline on preoperative tests to improve patient care

NICE has issued a clinical guideline on the use of routine preoperative tests in elective (pre-planned) surgery for children and adults. Every year around 5 million elective surgical procedures are performed by the NHS in England. Carrying out lots of preoperative tests can lead to unnecessary delays or cancellation of operations as well as inconvenience and discomfort to patients because of ‘false positive' test results. The NICE guideline will ensure that no matter where people live in England and Wales, they can be confident that the health professionals caring for them have clear recommendations about the tests that should and should not be carried out.

2003/021 NICE launches new clinical guideline on preoperative tests to improve patient care 25 June 2003 (112.2Kb 01min 39sec @ 28.8Kbps)

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This page was last updated: 30 April 2009