This guideline covers recognising and diagnosing autism spectrum disorder in children and young people from birth up to 19 years. It also covers referral. It aims to improve the experience of children, young people and those who care for them.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in people aged 18 and over. It aims to improve the quality of life for people with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis by helping healthcare professionals to diagnose the condition and provide effective symptom management.
This guideline covers identifying and caring for adults who are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition in hospital or in their own home or a care home. It offers advice on how oral, enteral tube feeding and parenteral nutrition support should be started, administered and stopped. It aims to support healthcare professionals identify malnourished people and help them to choose the most appropriate form of support.
This guideline covers preventing and managing inadvertent hypothermia in people aged 18 and over having surgery. It offers advice on assessing patients’ risk of hypothermia, measuring and monitoring temperature, and devices for keeping patients warm before, during and after surgery.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in people aged 18 and over. It details how to accurately diagnose IBS, and aims to improve the quality of life for adults with IBS by promoting effective management using dietary and lifestyle advice, pharmacological therapy and referral for psychological interventions.
This guideline covers the signs of possible child maltreatment in children and young people aged under 18 years. It aims to raise awareness and help health professionals who are not child protection specialists to identify the features of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, neglect and fabricated or induced illness.
This guideline covers care and support for people with advanced (stage 4) breast cancer. It aims to help them and their healthcare professionals make shared decisions about tests and treatments to improve outcomes and quality of life.
This guideline covers the diagnosing and managing of myeloma (including smouldering myeloma and primary plasma cell leukaemia) in people aged 16 and over. It aims to improve care for people with myeloma by promoting the most effective tests and treatments for myeloma and its complications.
This guideline covers assessing and managing cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract in people aged 16 and over. These are cancers of the airways of the head and neck, including the mouth, throat, larynx (voicebox) and sinuses. It aims to reduce variation in practice and improve survival.
This guideline covers assessing and managing pelvic fractures, open fractures and severe ankle fractures (known as pilon fractures and intra-articular distal tibia fractures) in pre-hospital settings (including ambulance services), emergency departments and major trauma centres. It aims to reduce deaths and long-term health problems by improving the quality of emergency and urgent care.
This guideline covers identifying and managing familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), a specific type of high cholesterol that runs in the family, in children, young people and adults. It aims to help identify people at increased risk of coronary heart disease as a result of having FH.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in people aged 18 and over. Rapid changes in diagnostic methods, endovascular treatments and vascular services associated with new specialties in surgery and interventional radiology have resulted in considerable uncertainty and variation in practice. This guideline aims to resolve that uncertainty and variation.
This guideline covers how to identify adults at high risk of type 2 diabetes. It aims to remind practitioners that age is no barrier to being at high risk of, or developing, the condition. It also aims to help them provide those at high risk with an effective and appropriate intensive lifestyle-change programme to prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes. The recommendations in this guideline can be used alongside the NHS Health Check programme.
This guideline sets out an antimicrobial prescribing strategy for preventing recurrent urinary tract infections in children, young people and adults who do not have a catheter. It aims to optimise antibiotic use and reduce antibiotic resistance.
This guideline sets out an antimicrobial prescribing strategy for acute pyelonephritis (upper urinary tract infection) in children, young people and adults who do not have a catheter. It aims to optimise antibiotic use and reduce antibiotic resistance.
This guideline sets out an antimicrobial prescribing strategy for acute prostatitis. It aims to optimise antibiotic use and reduce antibiotic resistance.
This guideline sets out an antimicrobial prescribing strategy for lower urinary tract infection (also called cystitis) in children, young people and adults who do not have a catheter. It aims to optimise antibiotic use and reduce antibiotic resistance.
This guideline covers renal replacement therapy (dialysis and transplantation) and conservative management for people with chronic kidney disease stages 4 and 5. It aims to improve quality of life by making recommendations on planning, starting and switching treatments, and coordinating care.
This guideline covers the recognition, diagnosis and early management of sepsis for all populations. The guideline committee identified that the key issues to be included were: recognition and early assessment, diagnostic and prognostic value of blood markers for sepsis, initial treatment, escalating care, identifying the source of infection, early monitoring, information and support for patients and carers, and training and education.
This guideline covers care during labour and birth for women who need extra support because they have a medical condition or complications in their current or previous pregnancy. The guideline also covers women who have had no antenatal care. It aims to improve experiences and outcomes for women and their babies.
This guideline covers care and support for adults with cerebral palsy. It aims to improve health and wellbeing, promote access to services and support participation and independent living.
This guideline covers assessing and managing renal and ureteric stones. It aims to improve the detection, clearance and prevention of stones, so reducing pain and anxiety, and improving quality of life.
This guideline sets out an antimicrobial prescribing strategy for acute cough associated with an upper respiratory tract infection or acute bronchitis in adults, young people and children. It aims to limit antibiotic use and reduce antibiotic resistance.
This guideline covers investigating all suspected thyroid disease and managing primary thyroid disease (related to the thyroid rather than the pituitary gland). It does not cover managing thyroid cancer or thyroid disease in pregnancy. It aims to improve quality of life by making recommendations on diagnosis, treatment, long-term care and support.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing chronic heart failure in people aged 18 and over. It aims to improve diagnosis and treatment to increase the length and quality of life for people with heart failure.
This guideline covers ways to reduce suicide and help people bereaved or affected by suicides. It aims to:
This guideline covers how community pharmacies can help maintain and improve people’s physical and mental health and wellbeing, including people with a long-term condition. It aims to encourage more people to use community pharmacies by integrating them within existing health and care pathways and ensuring they offer standard services and a consistent approach. It requires a collaborative approach from individual pharmacies and their representatives, local authorities and other commissioners.
This guideline covers managing acute and chronic pancreatitis in children, young people and adults. It aims to improve quality of life by ensuring that people have the right treatment and follow-up, and get timely information and support after diagnosis.
This guideline sets out an antimicrobial prescribing strategy for managing and preventing acute exacerbations of bronchiectasis (non-cystic fibrosis). It aims to optimise antibiotic use and reduce antibiotic resistance.
This guideline covers when to offer caesarean section, procedural aspects of the operation and care after caesarean section. It aims to improve the consistency and quality of care for women who are considering a caesarean section or have had a caesarean section in the past and are now pregnant again.
This guideline covers diagnosing, monitoring and managing asthma in adults, young people and children. It aims to improve the accuracy of diagnosis, help people to control their asthma and reduce the risk of asthma attacks. It does not cover managing severe asthma or acute asthma attacks. The investment and training required to implement the guideline will take time. In the meantime, primary care services should implement what they can of the recommendations, using currently available approaches to diagnosis until the infrastructure for objective testing is in place.
This guideline sets out an antimicrobial prescribing strategy for acute sore throat. It aims to limit antibiotic use and reduce antimicrobial resistance. Acute sore throat is often caused by a virus, lasts for about a week, and most people get better without antibiotics. Withholding antibiotics rarely leads to complications.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing endometriosis. It aims to raise awareness of the symptoms of endometriosis, and to provide clear advice on what action to take when women with signs and symptoms first present in healthcare settings. It also provides advice on the range of treatments available.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing hypertension (high blood pressure), including pre-eclampsia, during pregnancy, labour and birth. It also includes advice for women with hypertension who wish to conceive and women who have had a pregnancy complicated by hypertension. It aims to improve care during pregnancy, labour and birth for women and their babies.
This guideline covers making people aware of how to correctly use antimicrobial medicines (including antibiotics) and the dangers associated with their overuse and misuse. It also includes measures to prevent and control infection that can stop people needing antimicrobials or spreading infection to others. It aims to change people’s behaviour to reduce antimicrobial resistance and the spread of resistant microbes.
This guideline covers preventing, identifying and managing latent and active tuberculosis (TB) in children, young people and adults. It aims to improve ways of finding people who have TB in the community and recommends that everyone under 65 with latent TB should be treated. It describes how TB services should be organised, including the role of the TB control board.
This guideline covers recognising, assessing and treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children, young people and adults. It aims to improve quality of life by reducing symptoms of PTSD such as anxiety, sleep problems and difficulties with concentration. Recommendations also aim to raise awareness of the condition and improve coordination of care.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD (which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis) in people aged 16 and older. It aims to help people with COPD to receive a diagnosis earlier so that they can benefit from treatments to reduce symptoms, improve quality of life and keep them healthy for longer.
This guideline sets out an antimicrobial prescribing strategy for acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It aims to optimise antibiotic use and reduce antibiotic resistance.
This guideline covers the care of women at increased risk of, or with symptoms and signs of, preterm labour (before 37 weeks), and women having a planned preterm birth. It aims to reduce the risks of preterm birth for the baby and describes treatments to prevent or delay early labour and birth.
This guideline covers the care that healthy women and their babies should be offered during pregnancy. It aims to ensure that pregnant women are offered regular check-ups, information and support.
This guideline covers long-acting reversible contraception. It aims to increase the use of long-action reversible contraception by improving the information given to women about their contraceptive choices.
This guideline covers care for people with a family history of breast, ovarian or another related (prostate or pancreatic) cancer. It aims to improve the long-term health of these families by describing strategies to reduce the risk of and promote early detection of breast cancer (including genetic testing and mammography). It also includes advice on treatments (tamoxifen, raloxifene) and surgery (mastectomy).
This guideline sets out an antimicrobial prescribing strategy for catheter-associated urinary tract infection in children, young people and adults. It aims to optimise antibiotic use and reduce antibiotic resistance.
This guideline covers assessing, diagnosing and managing mental health problems in adults (aged 18 and over) who are in contact with the criminal justice system. It aims to improve mental health and wellbeing in this population by establishing principles for assessment and management, and promoting more coordinated care planning and service organisation across the criminal justice system.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing spondyloarthritis that is suspected or confirmed in adults who are 16 years or older. It aims to raise awareness of the features of spondyloarthritis and provide clear advice on what action to take when people with signs and symptoms first present in healthcare settings. It also provides advice on the range of treatments available.
This guideline covers medicines support for adults (aged 18 and over) who are receiving social care in the community. It aims to ensure that people who receive social care are supported to take and look after their medicines effectively and safely at home. It gives advice on assessing if people need help with managing their medicines, who should provide medicines support and how health and social care staff should work together.
This guideline covers vitamin D supplement use. It aims to prevent vitamin D deficiency among specific population groups including infants and children aged under 4, pregnant and breastfeeding women, particularly teenagers and young women, people over 65, people who have low or no exposure to the sun and people with darker skin.
This guideline covers managing neuropathic pain (nerve pain) with pharmacological treatments (drugs) in adults in non-specialist settings. It aims to improve quality of life for people with conditions such as neuralgia, shingles and diabetic neuropathy by reducing pain and promoting increased participation in all aspects of daily living. The guideline sets out how drug treatments for neuropathic pain differ from traditional pain management.
This guideline covers diagnosing, assessing and managing cerebral palsy in children and young people from birth up to their 25th birthday. It aims to make sure they get the care and treatment they need for the developmental and clinical comorbidities associated with cerebral palsy, so that they can be as active and independent as possible.