National Clinical Guideline Centre
The National Clinical Guideline Centre (NCGC) was formed in April 2009 following the merger of the National Collaborating Centres for Acute Care, Chronic Conditions, Nursing and Supportive Care and Primary Care. Hosted by the Royal College of Physicians,[1] the NCGC is one of the largest clinical guideline development organisations in the world.
The NCGC is commissioned to develop National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) clinical practice guidelines.[2] NICE guidelines provide care standards within the National Health Service (NHS) for healthcare professionals, patients and their carers on the prevention, treatment and care of people with specific diseases and conditions. The NCGC specialises in producing evidence based guidance and delivers a large work programme covering a wide variety of clinical and health service delivery topics.[3]
The multidisciplinary team that works on guideline development include research specialists in systematic reviewing, health economics and information science, supported by operational and clinical directors, project managers and project co-ordinators.[4]
Each guideline in the NCGC work programme is overseen by an independent guideline development group (GDG).[5] Membership of a GDG comprises healthcare professionals and patient/carer representatives supported by the NCGC technical team. GDGs meet regularly to review evidence and develop guideline recommendations. All guidelines are supported by robust processes for stakeholder consultation, ensuring that all available evidence and perspectives are taken into account prior to publication.[6]
The guidelines provide recommendations for good practice by healthcare professionals. The guidelines are also intended to help patients make informed decisions, to improve communication between the patient and healthcare professional, and to raise the profile of research work. They are generally provided in a full-length version and in various simplified formats for different purposes and audiences. Examples of guidelines produced by NCGC include: Patient experience (Guidance and Quality Standard), Epilepsy, Hypertension, Stable angina, Hip fracture, Anaemia management in chronic kidney disease, Sedation in children and young people, Nocturnal enuresis in children, Transient loss of consciousness, and Chronic heart failure.[7]
The work of the NCGC is overseen by a governance partnership between the Royal Colleges of General Practitioners, Nursing, Physicians and Surgeons. Each college is represented on the NCGC management board, alongside representatives from the Royal College of Physicians Patient and Carer Network, the UK Cochrane Centre, and the South West Strategic Health Authority.
References
- ↑ "National Clinical Guideline Centre". Royal College of Physicians. Archived from the original on 21 March 2012. Retrieved 6 March 2012.
- ↑ "National collaborating centres". Nice.org.uk. 2012-01-20. Retrieved 2013-10-17.
- ↑ "National Clinical Guideline Centre - Home". NCGC. Retrieved 2013-10-17.
- ↑ "National Clinical Guideline Centre - About". NCGC. Retrieved 2013-10-17.
- ↑ "Guideline development groups". Nice.org.uk. 2009-04-30. Retrieved 2013-10-17.
- ↑ "National Clinical Guideline Centre - Guidelines". NCGC. Retrieved 2013-10-17.
- ↑ "National Clinical Guideline Centre - Guidelines". NCGC. Retrieved 2013-10-17.