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 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 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 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 diagnosing and managing community- and hospital-acquired pneumonia in adults. It aims to improve accurate assessment and diagnosis of pneumonia to help guide antibiotic prescribing and ensure that people receive the right treatment.
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 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 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 investigating and managing gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) and dyspepsia in people aged 18 and over. It aims to improve the treatment of GORD and dyspepsia by making detailed recommendations on Helicobacter pylori eradication, and specifying when to consider laparoscopic fundoplication and referral to specialist services.
This guideline covers recognising, assessing and treating bipolar disorder (formerly known as manic depression) in children, young people and adults. The recommendations apply to bipolar I, bipolar II, mixed affective and rapid cycling disorders. It aims to improve access to treatment and quality of life in people with bipolar disorder.
This guideline covers the care and treatment of people with, or at risk of developing, chronic kidney disease. It aims to prevent or delay the progression of chronic kidney disease, reduce or prevent the development of complications, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing drug allergy in all age groups. It aims to make it easier for professionals to tell when someone is having an allergic reaction, by specifying the key signs and patterns to look out for. It also makes recommendations on improving people’s understanding of their drug allergies, and ensuring these are recorded properly in their medical records.
This guideline covers recognising, assessing and treating mental health problems in women who are planning to have a baby, are pregnant, or have had a baby or been pregnant in the past year. It covers depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, drug- and alcohol-use disorders and severe mental illness (such as psychosis, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia). It promotes early detection and good management of mental health problems to improve women’s quality of life during pregnancy and in the year after giving birth.
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 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 diagnosing and managing multiple sclerosis in people aged 18 and over. It aims to improve the quality of life for adults with multiple sclerosis by promoting symptom management, comprehensive reviews and effective relapse treatment.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing acute heart failure or possible acute heart failure in people aged 18 and over. It aims to improve the immediate care of someone who is acutely unwell as a result of heart failure.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing gallstone disease in adults. It aims to reduce variation in care by promoting the most effective treatments, and to improve the advice given to people with gallstone disease before and after treatment.
This guideline covers the routine postnatal care women and their babies should receive for 6–8 weeks after the birth. It includes advice given on breastfeeding, and the management of common and serious health problems in women and their babies after the birth.
This guideline covers preventing children, young people and adults becoming overweight or obese. It outlines how the NHS, local authorities, early years’ settings, schools and workplaces can increase physical activity levels and make dietary improvements among their target populations.
This guideline covers recognition, assessment and monitoring of faltering growth in infants and children. It includes a definition of growth thresholds for concern and identifying the risk factors for, and possible causes of, faltering growth. It also covers interventions, when to refer, service design, and information and support.
This guideline covers managing cataracts in adults aged 18 and over. It aims to improve care before, during and after cataract surgery by optimising service organisation, referral and surgical management, and reducing complications. It further aims to improve the availability of information for people with cataracts before, during and after cataract surgery.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing cystic fibrosis. It specifies how to monitor the condition and manage the symptoms to improve quality of life. There are also detailed recommendations on treating the most common infections in people with cystic fibrosis.
This guideline covers organising and delivering emergency and acute medical care for people aged over 16 in the community and in hospital. It aims to reduce the need for hospital admissions by giving advanced training to paramedics and providing community alternatives to hospital care. It also promotes good-quality care in hospital and joint working between health and social services.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing Lyme disease. It aims to raise awareness of when Lyme disease should be suspected and ensure that people have prompt and consistent diagnosis and treatment. It does not cover preventing Lyme disease.
This guideline covers recognising, diagnosing and managing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, young people and adults. It aims to improve recognition and diagnosis, as well as the quality of care and support for people with ADHD.
This guideline covers assessing and managing heavy menstrual bleeding (menorrhagia). It aims to help healthcare professionals investigate the cause of heavy periods that are affecting a woman’s quality of life and to offer the right treatments, taking into account the woman’s priorities and preferences.
This guideline covers assessing and reducing the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE or blood clots) and deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in people aged 16 and over in hospital. It aims to help healthcare professionals identify people most at risk and describes interventions that can be used to reduce the risk of VTE.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing bronchiolitis in children. It aims to help healthcare professionals diagnose bronchiolitis and identify if children should be cared for at home or in hospital. It describes treatments and interventions that can be used to help with the symptoms of bronchiolitis.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in adults. It aims to improve the speed at which people are diagnosed and treated to prevent loss of sight.
This guideline covers assessing and managing oesophago-gastric cancer in adults, including radical and palliative treatment and nutritional support. It aims to reduce variation in practice through better organisation of care and support, and improve quality of life and survival by giving advice on the most suitable treatments depending on cancer type, stage and location.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing pancreatic cancer in adults aged 18 and over. It aims to improve care by ensuring quicker and more accurate diagnosis, and by specifying the most effective treatments for people depending on how advanced their cancer is.
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.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing glaucoma in people aged 18 and over. It includes recommendations on testing and referral (case-finding) for chronic open angle glaucoma and ocular hypertension, and on effective diagnosis, treatment and reassessment to stop these conditions progressing.
This guideline covers the developmental follow-up of babies, children and young people under 18 years who were born preterm (before 37+0 weeks of pregnancy). It explains the risk of different developmental problems and disorders, and specifies what extra assessments and support children born preterm might need during their growth and development.
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, assessing, managing and monitoring anaemia in people with chronic kidney disease. It aims to improve care for people with chronic kidney disease by specifying how to assess when their anaemia needs treating, and by making detailed recommendations on treatment with erythropoietic stimulating agents (ESAs) and iron. It also covers detecting and managing ESA-resistant anaemia.
The guideline covers diagnosing, treating and managing epilepsy and seizures in children, young people and adults in primary and secondary care. It offers best practice advice on managing epilepsy to improve health outcomes so that people with epilepsy can fully participate in daily life.
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 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 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 assessing and managing urinary incontinence in children, young people and adults with neurological disease. It aims to improve care by recommending specific treatments based on what symptoms and neurological conditions people have.
This guideline covers preventing infection within 72 hours of birth in healthy babies, treating pregnant women whose baby is at risk, and caring for babies who have a suspected or confirmed infection. It aims to reduce delays in recognising and treating sick babies and prevent unnecessary use of antibiotics.
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 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 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 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 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.