Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides

WAG: Help is now at hand with practical information on how your community can make a difference with global warming in the Welsh Assembly Government’s Community Action Pack for Tackling Climate Change, which highlights projects covering energy, transport, water and food.

As well as ideas & case studies the pack details how groups can start projects and drive them through to conclusion. Produced by WAG, with assistance from Cynnal Cymru, the pack also contains a DVD of community projects.
Press release ~ WAG – Climate change ~ Community Action Pack for Tackling Climate Change ~ NFWI-Wales ~ Cynnal Cymru / Sustain Wales
NICE: Two new clinical guidelines have been launched, one from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) and one from The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommending that all patients suspected of having a stroke should be admitted as quickly as possible to an acute stroke unit, either from the community or by being transferred from A&E. The unit should check if the patient is eligible for thrombolysis (clot-busting drugs) and administer them if appropriate.

The NICE guideline covers the acute stage of stroke or transient ischaemic attack, and the RCP guideline is the third edition of the National Clinical Guideline for Stroke. The RCP guideline incorporates the NICE guideline and also covers recovery & rehabilitation, secondary prevention, long term care and has new sections on commissioning & resources. The guidelines were produced in close collaboration with each other, and both reference & relate to the Department of Health’s National Stroke Strategy (2007).
Press release ~ NICE: The diagnosis and acute management of stroke and transient ischaemic attacks ~ Royal College of Physicians (RCP) - National clinical guidelines for stroke ~ National Stroke Strategy ~ DH - Stroke
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published a short clinical guideline on appropriate prescribing of antibiotics for respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in adults and children in primary care. Evidence shows that antibiotics have limited effectiveness in treating a large proportion of RTIs in adults and children and complications are likely to be rare if antibiotics are withheld.
Press release ~ Prescribing of antibiotics for self-limiting respiratory tract infections in adults and children in primary care
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published its final guidance on the use of drug-eluting stents for the treatment of coronary artery disease. This is a part review of guidance on the use of coronary artery stents published in October 2003. Publication of this appraisal follows a meeting of the Appeal Panel on 31 March 2008, which heard an appeal from stent manufacturer Cordis. This appeal was not upheld by the Appeal Panel.
Press release ~ Drug-eluting stents for the treatment of coronary artery disease

NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued new public health guidance on mass-media and point-of-sales measures to prevent the uptake of smoking by children and young people.

Children and young people who smoke are two to six times more susceptible to coughs, increased phlegm and wheezing than their non-smoking peers. Smoking can also impair the growth of their lungs and is a cause of asthma-related symptoms in childhood and adolescence.
Press release ~ Guidance on preventing the uptake of smoking by children and young people ~ Smoking cessation services in primary care, pharmacies, local authorities and workplaces, particularly for manual working groups, pregnant women and hard to reach communities ~ Behaviour change at population, community and individual levels ~ Workplace health promotion: how to help employees to stop smoking ~ Brief interventions and referral for smoking cessation in primary care and other settings ~ NHS - Go Smokefree
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published its final guidance on the use of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII or ‘insulin pump’) therapy. This is a review of guidance on the use this technology published in February 2003. Insulin pump therapy is not recommended for the treatment of people with type 2 diabetes.
Press release ~ Continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion for the treatment of diabetes (review) ~ Diabetes UK ~ DH – Diabetes

NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Collaborating Centre for Women’s and Children’s Health have issued updated guidance to doctors & midwives on how to support & care for women being offered and undergoing induction of labour. The guidance revises areas where new information has become available since the original guidance was published in 2001.
It recommends that midwives and doctors provide women with evidence-based information about a range of key issues such as why induction is being offered, the risks & benefits of induction and different pain relief options, so they can make decisions that are right for them and their baby.
Press release ~ Induction of labour ~ National Collaborating Centre for Women’s and Children’s Health
Ofgem: Energy regulator Ofgem has moved to clear away confusion surrounding social tariffs – energy deals for vulnerable customers and fuel poor customers (those spending more than a tenth of their income on energy). The move is part of the regulator’s new guidelines on the types of initiatives that energy suppliers can include towards the social spending commitments agreed with Government.
Ofgem’s new guidelines provide more clarity & certainty on what will be counted towards this increased social expenditure and they set a tighter definition for social tariffs. The regulator has specified that in future, for a supplier’s social tariff to count as such against their spend commitments it must be as good as the lowest tariff they offer to customers in that area, including online deals. So vulnerable & fuel poor customers who struggle most to pay their energy bills will be assured of being on the best deal their supplier offers in their area.
Press release ~ Monitoring suppliers' social initiatives - 105/08 ~ Ofgem Fuel Poverty Summit briefing ~ Fuel Poverty action programme ~ CLG: Energy Efficiency and Fuel Poverty ~ Energy saving grants and offers - Energy Saving Trust ~ Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) ~ Review of the Sustainability of Existing Buildings: the Energy Efficiency of Dwellings - Initial Analysis ~ Warm Front
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