The purpose of this guideline is to help healthcare professionals deliver efficient planned care while minimising the risk of COVID-19 in the context of increasing or decreasing local prevalence. It also aims to help patients make decisions about their planned care.
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 indoor air quality in residential buildings. It aims to raise awareness of the importance of good air quality in people's homes and how to achieve this.
This guideline covers the main risk factors linked with cardiovascular disease: poor diet, physical inactivity, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption. It aims to reduce the high incidence of cardiovascular disease. This, in turn, will help prevent other major causes of death and illness, such as type 2 diabetes and many cancers.
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 managing acute painful sickle cell episodes in children, young people and adults who present at hospital, from presentation until when they are discharged. It aims to reduce variation in how acute episodes are managed in hospital, focusing on effective, prompt and safe pain relief.
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.
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 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 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 how donor milk banks should recruit, screen and support women who donate breast milk. It also covers how milk banks should handle and process the breast milk they receive from donors. It aims to improve the safety of donor milk and operation of donor milk services.
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 rehabilitation strategies for adults who have experienced a critical illness and stayed in critical care. It aims to improve physical, psychological and cognitive outcomes in people who have been discharged from critical care.
This guideline covers the assessment and early management of head injury in children, young people and adults. It promotes effective clinical assessment so that people receive the right care for the severity of their head injury, including referral directly to specialist care if needed.
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 short-term management of violence and aggression in adults (aged 18 and over), young people (aged 13 to 17) and children (aged 12 and under). It is relevant for mental health, health and community settings. The guideline aims to safeguard both staff and people who use services by helping to prevent violent situations and providing guidance to manage them safely when they occur.
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 targeted interventions to prevent misuse of drugs, including illegal drugs, ‘legal highs’ and prescription-only medicines. It aims to prevent or delay harmful use of drugs in children, young people and adults who are most likely to start using drugs or who are already experimenting or using drugs occasionally.
This guideline sets out an antimicrobial prescribing strategy for acute sinusitis. It aims to limit antibiotic use and reduce antimicrobial resistance. Acute sinusitis is usually caused by a virus, lasts for about 2 to 3 weeks, and most people get better without antibiotics. Withholding antibiotics rarely leads to complications.
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 assessing and managing osteoarthritis in adults. It covers both pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments. It promotes effective treatment options to control joint pain and improve function in people with osteoarthritis.
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.
The purpose of this guideline is to maximise the safety of patients who need radiotherapy and make the best use of NHS resources, while protecting staff from infection. It will also enable services to match the capacity for radiotherapy to patient needs if services become limited because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing bladder cancer in people 18 and above referred from primary care with suspected bladder cancer, and those with newly diagnosed or recurrent bladder (urothelial carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, squamous-cell carcinoma or small-cell carcinoma) or urethral cancer.
The purpose of this guideline is to maximise the safety of patients with cancer and make the best use of NHS resources during the COVID-19 pandemic, while protecting staff from infection. It will also enable services to match the capacity for cancer treatment to patient needs if services become limited because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This guideline sets out an antimicrobial prescribing strategy for secondary bacterial infection of eczema and covers infection of other common skin conditions. It aims to optimise antibiotic use and reduce antibiotic resistance. The recommendations are for adults, young people and children aged 72 hours and over. They do not cover diagnosis.
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 preventing, detecting and managing acute kidney injury in children, young people and adults. It aims to improve assessment and detection by non-specialists, and specifies when people should be referred to specialist services. This will improve early recognition and treatment, and reduce the risk of complications in people with acute kidney injury.
This guideline covers prescribing of cannabis-based medicinal products for people with intractable nausea and vomiting, chronic pain, spasticity and severe treatment-resistant epilepsy.
This guideline covers assessing and reducing the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE or blood clots, including deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism) 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 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 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 interventions in the acute stage of a stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA). It offers the best clinical advice on the diagnosis and acute management of stroke and TIA in the 48 hours after onset of symptoms.
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 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 road-traffic-related air pollution and its links to ill health. It aims to improve air quality and so prevent a range of health conditions and deaths.
This guideline covers assessment, treatment, monitoring and inpatient care for children, young people and adults with eating disorders. It aims to improve the care people receive by detailing the most effective treatments for anorexia nervosa, binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa.
This guideline covers condom distribution schemes. The aim is to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In addition, these schemes can provide a good introduction to broader sexual and reproductive health services, especially for younger people, and help prevent unplanned pregnancies.
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 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 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 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 covers how to increase uptake of the free flu vaccination among people who are eligible. It describes ways to increase awareness and how to use all opportunities in primary and secondary care to identify people who should be encouraged to have the vaccination.
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 diagnosing and managing early and locally advanced breast cancer. It aims to help healthcare professionals offer the right treatments to people, taking into account the person's individual preferences.
This guideline covers the initial assessment of symptoms and signs that might indicate a neurological condition. It helps non-specialist healthcare professionals to identify people who should be offered referral for specialist investigation.
This guideline covers preventing and treating surgical site infections in adults, young people and children who are having a surgical procedure involving a cut through the skin. It focuses on methods used before, during and after surgery to minimise the risk of infection.
This guideline covers specific aspects of respiratory support (for example, oxygen supplementation, assisted ventilation, treatment of some respiratory disorders, and aspects of monitoring) for preterm babies in hospital.
This guideline covers assessing and managing urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse in women aged 18 and over. It also covers complications associated with mesh surgery for these conditions.