This guideline covers good practice for developing and updating local formularies in line with statutory requirements. It supports developing formularies that reflect local needs, reduce variation in prescribing, and allow rapid adoption of new medicines and treatments.
This guideline covers good practice for developing, authorising, using and updating patient group directions. It also offers advice on deciding whether a patient group direction is needed.
This guideline covers the effective use of antimicrobials (including antibiotics) in children, young people and adults. It aims to change prescribing practice to help slow the emergence of antimicrobial resistance and ensure that antimicrobials remain an effective treatment for infection.
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 systems and processes for using and managing controlled drugs safely in all NHS settings except care homes. It aims to improve working practices to comply with legislation and have robust governance arrangements. It also aims to reduce the safety risks associated with controlled drugs.
This guideline covers the diagnosis and management of prostate cancer in secondary care, including information on the best way to diagnose and identify different stages of the disease, and how to manage adverse effects of treatment. It also includes recommendations on follow-up in primary care for people diagnosed with prostate cancer.
This guideline covers assessing and managing motor neurone disease (MND). It aims to improve care from the time of diagnosis, and covers information and support, organisation of care, managing symptoms and preparing for end of life care.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing constipation in children and young people up to 18. It provides strategies to support the early identification and timely, effective treatment of constipation which will help improve outcomes for patients. It does not cover constipation caused by a specific condition.
This guideline covers managing lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in men over 18. It aims to improve the quality of life for men with LUTS by recommending which assessments they should receive, and when conservative management, drug treatment and surgery can help.
This guideline covers the assessment and management of melanoma (a type of skin cancer) in children, young people and adults. It aims to reduce variation in practice and improve survival.
This guideline covers the organisation and provision of major trauma services in pre-hospital and hospital settings, including ambulance services, emergency departments, major trauma centres and trauma units. It aims to reduce deaths and disabilities in people with serious injuries by providing a systematic approach to the delivery of major trauma care. It does not cover services for people with burns.
This guideline covers safe and effective use of medicines in health and social care for people taking 1 or more medicines. It aims to ensure that medicines provide the greatest possible benefit to people by encouraging medicines reconciliation, medication review, and the use of patient decision aids.
This guideline covers the care of healthy women and their babies, during labour and immediately after the birth. It focuses on women who give birth between 37 and 42 weeks of pregnancy (‘term’). The guideline helps women to make an informed choice about where to have their baby. It also aims to reduce variation in areas of care such as fetal monitoring during labour and management of the third stage of labour.
This guideline covers identifying, assessing and managing obesity in children (aged 2 years and over), young people and adults. It aims to improve the use of bariatric surgery and very-low-calorie diets to help people who are obese to reduce their weight.
This guideline covers recognising and managing antisocial behaviour and conduct disorders in children and young people aged under 19. It aims to improve care by identifying children and young people who are at risk and when interventions can prevent conduct disorders from developing. The guideline also makes recommendations on communication, to help professionals build relationships with children and young people and involve them in their own care.
This guideline covers assessing and managing psoriasis in adults, young people and children. It aims to improve long-term disease control and quality of life for people with psoriasis.
This guideline covers preventing, identifying and managing neutropenic sepsis in children, young people and adults receiving treatment for cancer in the community and in secondary and tertiary care. It aims to reduce the risk of infection in people with neutropenia (low number of white blood cells) who are receiving anticancer treatment and improve management of neutropenic sepsis.
This guideline covers diagnosing and treating fertility problems. It aims to reduce variation in practice and improve the way fertility problems are investigated and managed.
This guideline covers recognising, diagnosing and managing bacterial meningitis and meningococcal septicaemia (blood poisoning) in babies, children and young people under 16. It aims to reduce deaths and disability by promoting early recognition of symptoms and timely effective management.
This guideline covers endoscopy treatments for people aged 18 and over with Barrett’s oesophagus and high-grade dysplasia or intramucosal cancer. It offers advice on which types of endoscopy treatments should be offered and how these should be used. It aims to improve choice of treatment for adults with Barrett’s oesophagus and improve quality of life and survival for those who cannot have surgery.
This guideline covers assessment, diagnosis and referral for people over 16 who have had a transient loss of consciousness (TLoC; also called a blackout). It aims to improve care for people with TLoC by specifying the most effective assessments and recommending when to refer to a specialist.
This guideline covers identifying, assessing and managing alcohol-use disorders (harmful drinking and alcohol dependence) in adults and young people aged 10–17 years. It aims to reduce harms (such as liver disease, heart problems, depression and anxiety) from alcohol by improving assessment and setting goals for reducing alcohol consumption.
This guideline covers antenatal care for all pregnant women with complex social factors (particularly alcohol or drug misuse, recent migrant or asylum seeker status, difficulty reading or speaking English, aged under 20, domestic abuse). It offers advice on improving access to care, maintaining contact with antenatal carers, and additional information and support for these women.
This guideline covers diagnosing and treating delirium in people aged 18 and over in hospital and in long-term residential care or a nursing home. It also covers identifying people at risk of developing delirium in these settings and preventing onset. It aims to improve diagnosis of delirium and reduce hospital stays and complications.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing secondary cancers in people aged 18 and over when the site of the primary cancer is unknown. This includes people who have had treatment for cancer before. It aims to improve quality of life by offering advice on tests for identifying the site of the primary cancer and options for managing the person’s condition when this cannot be found.
This guideline covers the assessment, preparation, training and monitoring needed when using sedation in people aged under 19. It aims to help healthcare professionals decide when sedation is the most clinically and cost effective option for reducing pain and anxiety during operations for children and young people.
This guideline covers assessing and managing people aged 14 years and over with coexisting severe mental illness (psychosis) and substance misuse. It aims to help healthcare professionals guide people with psychosis with coexisting substance misuse to stabilise, reduce or stop their substance misuse, to improve treatment adherence and outcomes, and to enhance their lives.
This guideline covers assessing and managing chronic hepatitis B in children, young people and adults. It aims to improve care for people with hepatitis B by specifying which tests and treatments to use for people of different ages and with different disease severities.
This guideline covers recognising, assessing and treating social anxiety disorder (also known as ‘social phobia’) in children and young people (from school age to 17 years) and adults (aged 18 years and older). It aims to improve symptoms, educational, occupational and social functioning, and quality of life in people with social anxiety disorder.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing suspected or confirmed autism spectrum disorder (autism, Asperger’s syndrome and atypical autism) in people aged 18 and over. It aims to improve access and engagement with interventions and services, and the experience of care, for people with autism.
This guideline covers preventing and controlling healthcare-associated infections in children, young people and adults in primary and community care settings. It provides a blueprint for the infection prevention and control precautions that should be applied by everyone involved in delivering NHS care and treatment.
This guideline covers the components of a good patient experience. It aims to make sure that all adults using NHS services have the best possible experience of care.
This guideline covers identifying people who wish to donate their organs after their death. It offers advice on how to approach families and carers of people who are nearing the end of life and how to seek consent for organ donation. It aims to promote discussion of organ donation as part of end-of-life care and to increase the number of organs available for people waiting for a transplant.
This guideline covers assessment and referral for anaphylaxis. It aims to improve the quality of care for people with suspected anaphylaxis by detailing the assessments that are needed and recommending referral to specialist allergy services.
This guideline covers the longer-term psychological treatment and management of self-harm in people aged 8 and over. It aims to improve the quality of care and support for people who self harm and covers both single and recurrent episodes of self-harm.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing colorectal (bowel) cancer in people aged 18 and over. It aims to improve quality of life and survival for adults with colorectal cancer through early diagnosis and staging, management of local disease according to risk of recurrence (high, moderate, low) and management of secondary tumours (metastatic disease).
This guideline covers managing hyperglycaemia in the first 48 hours for adults admitted to hospital for acute coronary syndromes. It aims to improve initial management of hyperglycaemia and ensure that adults are given advice on their diabetes risk and how to reduce it.
This guideline covers managing stable angina in people aged 18 and over. It outlines the importance of addressing the person’s concerns about stable angina and the roles of medical therapy and revascularisation.
This guideline covers care for people aged 18 and over with common mental health problems, with a focus on primary care. It aims to improve access to services for adults and how mental health problems are identified and assessed, and makes recommendations on local care pathways.
This guideline covers using colonoscopy to check for signs of bowel cancer in people aged 18 and over with ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease (types of inflammatory bowel disease) or adenomas (also known as polyps). It aims to prevent cancer and prolong life by offering advice on identifying early bowel cancer in adults most at risk.
This guideline covers assessing and managing food allergy in children and young people under 19. It aims to improve symptoms such as faltering growth and eczema by offering advice on how to identify food allergy and when to refer to secondary or specialist care.
This guideline covers advice on the diagnosis and management of tension-type headache, migraine (including migraine with aura and menstrual-related migraine), cluster headache and medication overuse headache in young people (aged 12 years and older) and adults. It aims to improve the recognition and management of headaches, with more targeted treatment to improve the quality of life for people with headaches, and to reduce unnecessary investigations.
This guideline covers prescribing antibiotics in primary care to children (aged 3 months and older), young people and adults with self-limiting respiratory tract infections (RTIs). It provides practical strategies for prescribing, including identifying when immediate antibiotics are needed and when to offer a delayed prescription or reassurance alone. It covers identifying who is at risk of serious illness but not investigations or further care for people needing immediate antibiotics.
This guideline covers risk assessment, prevention and treatment in children, young people and adults at risk of, or who have, a pressure ulcer (also known as a bedsore or pressure sore). It aims to reduce the number of pressure ulcers in people admitted to secondary or tertiary care or receiving NHS care in other settings, such as primary and community care and emergency departments.
This guideline covers assigning recall intervals between oral health reviews that are appropriate to the needs of individual patients. The guideline takes account of the effect of dental checks on: people’s wellbeing, general health and preventive habits; caries incidence and avoiding restorations; periodontal health and avoiding tooth loss; and avoiding pain and anxiety. It aims to improve or maintain patients’ quality of life and reduce morbidity associated with oral and dental disease.
This guideline covers recognising, assessing, diagnosing and treating obsessive-compulsive disorder and body dysmorphic disorder in adults, young people and children (aged 8 years and older). It aims to improve the diagnosis and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder and body dysmorphic disorder. It includes recommendations on how families and carers may be able to support people with either of these conditions, and how they can get support for themselves.
This guideline covers how upper gastrointestinal bleeding can be effectively managed in adults and young people aged 16 years and older. It aims to identify which diagnostic and therapeutic steps are useful so hospitals can develop a structure in which clinical teams can deliver an optimum service for people who develop this condition.
This guideline covers safe and effective prescribing of strong opioids for pain relief in adults with advanced and progressive disease. It aims to clarify the clinical pathway for prescribing and help to improve pain management and patient safety. Care during the last 2 to 3 days of life is covered by care of dying adults in the last days of life.
This guideline covers assessing the risk of fragility fracture in people aged 18 and over with osteoporosis. It aims to provide guidance on the selection and use of risk assessment tools in the care of adults at risk of fragility fractures in all NHS settings.
This guideline covers detecting, diagnosing and treating women (18 years and older) who have, or are suspected of having, epithelial ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer, primary peritoneal cancer or borderline ovarian cancer. It aims to enable earlier detection of ovarian cancer and improve initial treatment.