Today, the National Guideline Centre (NGC) celebrates a decade of producing pioneering NICE guidelines.
Hosted by the RCP, the NGC is commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) who are also celebrating their 20 year anniversary this month, to develop and produce evidence-based guidelines.
Professor Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said:
I would like to personally congratulate our national guideline centre (NGC) for reaching a decade of working with NICE to develop guidelines that have helped shape and change clinical practice. It is the dedication and expertise of our NGC staff in information science, systematic reviewing and health economics that has enabled NGC’s 10 years of success.
Sir Andrew Dillon, chief executive of NICE, added:
Working with the national guideline centre, NICE is able to produce world leading evidence-based guidelines. We are proud to be associated with such a dedicated and professional team and look forward to working with them in the future.
Formerly known as the National Clinical Guideline Centre (NCGC), the NGC was formed in April 2009 following the merger of the National Collaborating Centres for acute care, chronic conditions, nursing and supportive and primary care. Since then, the NGC has developed around 80 NICE guidelines that have helped drive clinical practice, improve patient care and encourage innovation. It is one of the biggest guideline centres in the world.
The NGC develops evidence based NICE guidelines using the best available evidence on a variety of areas from chronic conditions, acute and emergency to physical conditions, with the aim of improving the quality of healthcare. The NGC also provides a consultancy service, offering support for other national and international organisations, such as clinical commissioning groups and specialist societies. It offers training courses related to literature searching, systematic reviewing, health economics and how to critically appraise research studies.
Key milestones
NICE guidelines developed by NGC include:
- 2012 – Patient experience in adult NHS services guideline was one of the first to develop quality standards to ensure good patient experience within the NHS.
- 2014 – Head injury guideline covers the assessment and early management of head injury in children, young people and adults. This was instrumental in changing the way people with head injuries are diagnosed.
- 2016 - Sepsis guideline covers the recognition, diagnosis and early management of sepsis for all and saves lives supporting healthcare professionals to recognise the early warning signs for sepsis.
- 2016 - Five guidelines on the delivery of Trauma Care is a comprehensive set of guidelines that includes recommendations on the management of major trauma, spinal injuries and people with fractures. It addresses care delivered on the road side through to the emergency departments and emergency surgery.
- 2018 - Emergency and acute medical care in over 16s: service delivery and organisation guideline aims to reduce the need for hospital admissions by giving advanced training to paramedics and providing community alternatives to hospital care.