Clinical Guidelines & Healthcare Resources

Clinical guidelines provide systematically developed recommendations to assist healthcare professionals and organisations in delivering effective and evidence-based care. They are published by official bodies, specialty societies, and aggregators to support clinical practice, quality assurance, and governance.

The following resources can help you locate, understand, and use clinical guideline information relevant to UK healthcare.

Official guideline publishers

These are primary sources where guidelines are developed and maintained.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)

NICE produces evidence-based guidance and advice for health, public health, and social care in the UK. Visit: https://www.nice.org.uk

NHS clinical guidance

The NHS publishes policy documents, pathways, and clinical guidance across services and conditions. Visit: https://www.nhs.uk

Specialty and royal college societies

Many clinical specialty organisations publish their own guidance and standards. Examples include the Royal College of Physicians, the British Society for Rheumatology, and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Explore individual society sites for condition-specific guidance.

Guideline aggregators & reference tools

These platforms provide searchable access to multiple guideline sources and summaries. They are useful starting points for locating documents across publishers.

CliniSearch

CliniSearch is a structured search platform designed to help users locate UK clinical guideline content from recognised bodies such as NICE, the NHS, and specialty societies. It supports governance and audit use cases by providing organised access to guideline sources.

Guideline Central

Guideline Central offers a large, searchable library of clinical guideline summaries and reference tools from multiple organisations. It is an aggregated resource that can assist in locating guideline documents and understanding their scope.

How to use these resources

1. Identifying relevant guidelines

• Start with official publishers (such as NICE and the NHS) for guidelines specific to your clinical area.
• Use aggregators like CliniSearch and Guideline Central to quickly locate documents across multiple sources.

2. Contextualising guidance

• Review the issuing organisation's methodology and scope.
• Check currency (publication date, review status) before applying guidance.

3. Supporting governance & audit

• Organise guideline documents in a structured repository for your team.
• Document how and when guidance is applied in clinical workflows.

Best practices for clinical use

• Always refer to the official publisher's website or PDF for definitive recommendations.
• Use aggregated results as a guide, not as a replacement for primary source documents.
• For legal or governance decisions, cross-check guideline currency and update status.

Related resources

• Healthcare Resources FAQ.
• Clinical guideline search tips (internal link if you add one).
• How to evaluate guideline quality (internal resource).
• Policy and standards pages (internal navigation).

Next steps

If you have suggestions for additional resources or need help locating specific guidance, please contact us.