Today’s merger of four National Collaborating Centres (NCC) that develop clinical guidelines for the National Health Service (NHS) on a wide range of chronic and acute conditions, creates the largest clinical guideline centre in the UK and one of the largest in the world.
Funded by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the new National Clinical Guideline Centre (NCGC) is hosted by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP). It replaces four former NCCs – those for acute conditions (based at the Royal College of Surgeons), chronic conditions (based at the RCP), nursing and supportive care (based at the Royal College of Nursing), and primary care (based at the Royal College of General Practitioners). The NCGC is a collaboration of these four Royal Colleges.
The NCGC is led by chief operating officer, Dr Ian Bullock, formerly director of the NCC for nursing and supportive care.
The aim is to develop high-quality and clinically-relevant guidance. This will be achieved by: greater consistency in guideline production with increased academic recognition for innovative clinical and cost effectiveness review work; facilitating the allocation of guideline topics and their development; recognising the multidisciplinary nature of many of the guidelines and therefore involving all four colleges, and providing better staff development opportunities.
Dr Bullock said: “I am excited at this opportunity to lead this large group of highly talented clinical and academic researchers. Our primary aim is to work with patients and healthcare professionals in improving the quality and consistency of patient care, and to make a real and lasting difference to patient experience when receiving NHS care.”