A - Z of common queries and useful websites


Last updated June 2008

This list of subjects has been compiled to reflect the questions most frequently put to the BMA's Public Information Unit. It is not exhaustive and we add to it regularly as we become aware of other useful websites. In as many cases as possible, we link to the relevant web page of the websites we are recommending, rather than the home page. This is a list of the subjects covered in the A-Z:
  • Blood donation
Abbreviations
The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has produced a useful guide on common medical abbreviations used in patients' medical notes. Access the RCGP's guidance on medical abbreviations here.

Access to medical records
The BMA has produced guidance for doctors on access to health records by patients (revised October 2007), setting out how patients can access their medical records and the charges involved. There is a maximum fee of £50 for patients wanting copies of their health records.

The Department of Health (DH) has also produced guidance for patients on patient confidentiality and access to health records - including a 'frequently asked questions' section on accessing health records.

The BBC's Action Network website is another source of useful guidance for patients about how they can access their health records.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) oversees implementation of the Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Act 1998 (which is the legislation giving citizens the right to see records held about them, including their medical records). They have a helpline for those seeking advice on access to their records: Tel (01625) 54 57 45 or Tel 08456 30 60 60.

The ICO also operates a complaints procedure for people who believe that their personal information, including health records, have not been handled correctly. Members of the public can also raise any concerns they have about the accuracy of their medical records.

Alcohol
The NHS has a new website dedicated to providing information about the alcoholic content of different alcoholic drinks (their units), with advice on how to cut down on drinking.

Alcohol Concern has also produced a range of factsheets about alcohol and health which are available on their website, including one on the health impacts of excessive alcohol consumption and one on alcopops.

The BMA's Board of Science has produced several reports on the adverse health impacts of excessive alcohol consumption, particularly with reference to young people; a summary of these reports is available in our briefing paper Alcohol misuse (June 2007).

Our most recent report is Alcohol misuse: tackling the UK epidemic (February 2008).

Our Board of Science has also produced an information resource on binge drinking (March 2005).

In terms of seeking help and advice, people with drinking problems may wish to contact their GP. They can also contact Drinkline, a free and confidential telephone helpline for people who need help and support with their own, or someone else's, drinking. The Drinkline number is Tel 0800 917 8282 and lines are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Blood donations
National blood service for England and North Wales
Donating blood in Wales (Cymraeg and English)

Careers in medicine
Becoming a Doctor: entry in 2008 is the BMA's main guidance for people thinking of studying medicine.

The British Medical Journal's BMJ Careers website provides information on medical jobs throughout the UK, in addition to up-to-date careers advice for doctors and medical students. It is also a useful source of information for people thinking of going into medicine as a career and on the different career options in the profession.

Student BMJ also includes careers information and articles written by medical students.

The NHS Careers website provides information on careers in the NHS other than medicine (e.g. nursing, midwifery, physiotherapy and administrative and managerial jobs). The NHS Careers Helpline number is: Tel 0845 60 60 655 (available 8am - 7pm Monday to Friday).

Carers
The Department of Health (DH) produced a practical information guide for disabled people and carers in 2003, This guide provides advice on accessing information, services and equipment for disabled people, older persons, those with mental health problems and those supporting or caring for someone.

Further, up-to-date information and advice about being a carer, including employment and benefits advice, is provided on the Directgov website.

Carers UK is the leading charity providing information and support for carers in the UK. Carers UK offers a range of advice on its website, including information on the benefits that are available to carers such as the Carers Allowance (see 'Financial Help'). Their website also provides contact details for national and local carers organisations (see 'Help in your Area').

The Carers UK helpline, CarersLine, is available on Tel (0808) 808 7777.

The BMA's Committee on Community Care first produced guidance for doctors on working with carers in 2003. This guidance, Working with carers, was updated in 2007. The new guidance looks at the legislation and government guidance relating to services for carers; how doctors can help and support carers; other support available for carers; and issues of confidentiality.

Children's health
The Institute of Child Health (ICH) is the leading British academic research institution for child health and has close links to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) NHS Trust. Their joint website provides more than 300 factsheets for patients and their families, covering a wide range of different conditions, treatments and surgical procedures.

The Child Health Informatics Centre (CHIC) is an organisation dedicated to promoting good practice in the management of child health information. Although CHIC is a membership organisation, some of their work, such as their Newsletters, can be accessed by non-member visitors to their website.

Complaints
For information about the NHS complaints procedure in England visit the NHS Choices website here.

You can find further information on how patients can raise their concerns in How to raise concerns about your care on the BMA website.

The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) was created in 2001 to improve the safety and quality of care through reporting, analysing and learning from adverse incidents involving NHS patients. While the NPSA has no remit to investigate individual complaints, they are keen to hear from patients and carers about their experience of using the NHS, in order to help improve patient safety. Patients can report adverse incidents online.

Complementary medicine
When considering alternative or complementary medicine as a form of treatment, it is advisable for patients to discuss the matter with their GP as GPs hold the full record of a patient's medical history.

In 1999, in response to growing interest among patients in the use of complementary therapies, the BMA first produced guidance for GPs on referral to complementary therapists the updated version of which is available on our website.

In the past, the BMA has called for greater regulation of complementary medicine. Currently, only the disciplines of chiropractic and osteopathy are governed by regulatory bodies recognised in law, although in 2005 the Department of Health published a consultation paper on the statutory regulation of herbal medicine and acupuncture. No firm proposals for the statutory regulation of these professions have been brought forward yet.

A new organisation called The Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) is due to be launched this year (2008), facilitated by The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health.

The Council will check the qualifications of complementary health practitioners in a range of disciplines (see below), who will only be registered if they have the appropriate training and qualifications. Once registered, their names will be added to a database on the CNHC's website.

Therapies that will be covered by the CNHC Register include the Alexander technique, aromatherapy, the Bowen technique, cranial therapy, homeopathy, massage therapy, naturopathy, nutritional therapy, reflexology, reiki, shiatsu and yoga therapy. If someone visits a complementary therapist and is then not satisfied with the treatment they have received, they will be able to go through a complaints procedure managed by the CNHC.

The Department of Health (DH) also provides information about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) on its website.

Here is a list of common complementary therapies with their regulatory bodies or associations:

Chiropractic
All chiropractors now have to be registered with the General Chiropractic Council (GCC), which was established in June 2001 to regulate and promote the chiropractic profession and to set standards of education, practice and conduct for chiropractors. The GCC requires practitioners to have completed a minimum of 4,800 hours of total study time (generally equivalent to a four-year course), at an accredited chiropractic college.

Osteopathy
All osteopaths must now be registered with the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC), which was set up in May 2000. GOsC registers qualified professionals, sets standards for osteopathic practice and conduct, ensures that osteopaths continue their professional development and helps with complaints against osteopaths. To be on the GOsC register, osteopaths must have completed a training programme recognised by the Council. Full time training takes around four to five years.

Acupuncture
In 2002, the BMA published the report Acupuncture: efficacy, safety and practice, which recognises the potential benefits of acupuncture in treating certain conditions such as back pain and migraine.

There are several organisations which represent acupuncturists:

The British Acupuncture Council (BAcC) is the main association representing professional acupuncturists in Great Britain. BAcC members practise traditional forms of diagnosis and acupuncture treatment and the BAcC provides guidance for its members on training standards, safe practice and ethical behaviour. Although there is currently no statutory body regulating the practise of acupuncture in the UK, it is anticipated that, within a few years, the acupuncture profession will be regulated by a such a body.

The British Medical Acupuncture Society (BMAS) was formed in 1980 and membership of the Society is open to UK-registered doctors and dentists who use acupuncture in hospital or general practice. There is a section providing information for patients on the BMAS website.

Homeopathy
The Society of Homeopaths is a professional membership body representing non-medical homeopaths. Its members have to have completed a three-year full-time (or four-year part-time) course in homeopathy. The Society developed a Code of Ethics and Practice in 2004.

In 2008, a Single Register of the Council of Organisations Registering Homeopaths (CORH) is due to be launched. The Society of Homeopaths is a founding member of CORH, whose aims include to: establish a single voluntary, self-regulating register of professional homeopaths and to establish a common code of ethics for all homeopaths.

The Faculty of Homeopathy runs postgraduate training courses in homeopathy for doctors, dentists, nurses and other healthcare professionals.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) provides information on its website about existing regulations applying to the supply and labelling of homeopathic medicines, including registration of homeopathic medicines under the new National Rules Scheme, which came into force in September 2006. This Scheme allows products to be registered, indicating that they are for the relief or treatment of minor symptoms and conditions.

Herbal medicine
The National Institute of Medical Herbalists is the leading body representing herbal medicine practitioners in the UK. Membership of the Institute is open to those who have completed at least three years of training at a college accredited by the NIMH. There is further information about the training and accreditation of herbalists on the NIMH website (under the heading 'Resources').

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) website provides comprehensive information on the new Traditional Herbal Medicines Registration Scheme (THMRS). All medicinal herbal products placed on the market in the UK will eventually have to be registered under the scheme, including traditional over-the-counter (OTC) herbal remedies, although the registration scheme does not have to be fully implemented until April 2011.

The MHRA now also publishes Herbal Safety News on its website, providing advice on the safety of different herbal medicines. It should be noted that some herbal remedies can interact adversely with conventional medicines.

Hypnotherapy
The British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis (BSCAH), incorporates the British Society of Medical & Dental Hypnosis (BSMDH) founded 1952 and British Society of Experimental & Clinical Hypnosis (BSECH) founded 1977.

BSCAH is a national organisation of doctors, dentists, psychologists and other health professionals who are trained and interested in hypnosis and its use in treating anxiety and stress in patients and other disorders.

Condition or disease-specific patient organisations
For a list of sources of information on self-help or patient organisations in the UK, go to Finding a self-help or patient group on the BMA's website.

The Patient UK website also provides an A-Z listing of patient groups for a wide range of medical conditions (see Patient support organisations). This website is compiled by doctors and updated regularly. Please note that the Patient UK website carries commercial advertising, sometimes in relation to specific health conditions.

Confidentiality
In 1999, the BMA's Ethics Committee produced guidance on patient confidentiality entitled Confidentiality and disclosure of health information. In March 2008, the BMA updated this guidance in the form of a new tool kit for doctors, the Confidentiality and disclosure of health information tool kit.

The purpose of the Tool Kit is not to provide definitive answers on confidentiality which will apply in every situation, but to identify the key factors and principles which need to be taken into account by doctors when making decisions about the confidentiality of their patients' health records.

The Tool Kit consists of a series of cards about specific areas of confidentiality relating to, for example, children and young people, adults who lack capacity and the deceased - as well the circumstances in which health information can be released in the public interest.

The General Medical Council (GMC), the doctors' regulatory body, has also produced guidance for doctors on patient confidentiality: Confidentiality: Protecting and Providing Information (2004).

For patients treated within the NHS, the NHS Confidentiality Code of Practice (November 2003) sets out standards for those working within or under contract to NHS organisations regarding (i) patient confidentiality and (ii) patients' consent to the use of their health records.

Finally, there is further information on the Department of Health website about patient confidentiality, including about Caldicott guardians, who are senior staff in the NHS and social services, specifically appointed to protect patient information.

Consent to Treatment
The General Medical Council has produced new guidance for doctors on consent to treatment by patients (2008), entitled Consent: patients and doctors making decisions together. It expands on the guidance already available in Good Medical Practice, also published by the GMC.

In 2007, the BMA updated its own guidance on consent, The Consent Toolkit. The purpose of the Tool Kit is to inform and improve the process of obtaining valid consent to treatment from patients. It covers specific areas of consent such as providing treatment to children; emergency treatment; obtaining consent for teaching purposes and what happens when patients do not have the capacity to make a decision for themselves.

Cosmetic surgery
There is now much official advice on the internet regarding cosmetic surgery.

The Department of Health (DH) has produced information for the public to help them make informed decisions about whether or not to have cosmetic surgery or other non-surgical procedures - including an A-Z of cosmetic treatments; the guidance is entitled Cosmetic surgery and non-surgical cosmetic treatments.

In 2005, the Healthcare Commission, an independent body which aims to promote improvement in the quality of NHS and independent healthcare, published a report, Provision of Cosmetic Surgery in England, an investigation into the private cosmetic surgery sector in England.

The Healthcare Commission's website provides a wealth of useful information and advice about cosmetic surgery, including its own guidance Making safe choices - information for people considering a cosmetic treatment, with further links to advice produced by specialist organisations such as the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) and the British Association of Head and Neck Surgeons.

Advice is also offered on having cosmetic procedures carried out overseas and the factors to consider.

Various official reports on the provision of cosmetic surgery procedures have recommended that non-surgical procedures should be brought within the regulatory framework of the Healthcare Commission, meaning that clinics providing such services would have to register with the Commission and be subject to its scrutiny. These non-surgical procedures include treatments using injected materials to paralyse the muscles causing wrinkles (such as Botox) and remodelling techniques using cells or tissue ie cosmetic fillers.

The Department of Health has asked the cosmetic surgery industry to improve safety in the cosmetic use of botulinum toxin and dermal fillers and the Independent Healthcare Advisory Services (IHAS) is taking the lead in setting up a self-regulatory scheme to cover such products (working with the Healthcare Commission).

The self regulatory model will be finalised in 2008 and will include:
  • A set of standards and a Code of Practice
  • High level training course requirements
  • Registration and inspection procedures
  • Complaints procedures (Reference 1)
Further information about the new regulatory framework covering non-surgical cosmetic procedures is provided on the Heatlhcare Commission's website.

Database of Individual Patient Experiences (DIPEx)
The DIPEx website is designed for patients who have to undergo treatment and who would like to find out from other patients what the treatment was like - or what it is like to live with a particular condition. It is also aimed at carers, the families of patients and healthcare professionals.

The organisers of DIPEx are hoping to extend their database to include modules on over 100 main illnesses and conditions, as well as covering topics such as immunisation, rare diseases, skin conditions, infertility and chronic illness.

Currently, DIPEx has 'patient experience' databases on:
  • Cancer and screening: breast cancer; breast screening; cervical cancer; bowel cancer; bowel screening; lung cancer; lymphoma; ovarian cancer; prostate cancer; PSA testing; teenage cancer; testicular cancer
  • Chronic health issues: chronic pain; rheumatoid arthritis; HIV; diabetes Type 2
  • Young people's experiences: Sexual health of young people aged 18-25; teenage cancer; diabetes Type 1 in young people; young people with long term health conditions
  • Women's health, pregnancy and screening: pregnancy; antenatal screening; ending a pregnancy for a fetal abnormality; screening for sickle cell, beta thalassemia and other variants; breastfeeding; making decisions about birth after Caesarean
  • Heart disease: parents of children with congenital heart disease; heart attack; heart failure; high blood pressure
  • Immunisation
  • Intensive care: patient's experiences; experiences of family & friends
  • Living with dying
  • Neurological: epilepsy; carers of people with dementia; stroke
  • Mental health: depression
You can find out more about DIPEx by visiting their website.

Department of Health
The Department of Health (DH) is the UK government department responsible for health matters. The DH website provides information on NHS policy and guidance, with links to other government websites such as that of the Chief Medical Officer. There are also links to sources of information on international health issues.

The DH's Policy and Guidance A-Z covers all major areas of current DH policy and guidance.

The Health Care section of the DH website provides information on a wide range of health policies, including:
  • primary care
  • secondary care
  • emergency care
  • out-of-hours care
  • health advice for travellers
  • National Service Frameworks
  • medicines and pharmacy
  • maternity services
  • fertility and assisted reproduction
  • patient choice
  • patient self-care
The Social Care section of the DH website provides policy information on:
  • delivering adult social care
  • the regulations governing the provision of social care
  • charges for residential and non-residential social care
The Public Health section of the DH website provides policy information on:
  • infectious diseases (such as measles, mumps, meningitis C, polio, rubella, TB and hepatitis A, B and C)
  • influenza
  • health improvement (including policies on alcohol and substance misuse, obesity and sexual health)
  • cosmetic surgery (guidance for patients considering surgical and non-surgical cosmetic treatments)
  • scientific developments, genetics and bioethics (including stem cells and cloning)
Dentistry
The General Dental Council (GDC) is the UK regulatory body for dentists; it offers an online facility for checking that a dentist is registered to practise in the UK.

The British Dental Association (BDA) is the dentists’ professional association and trade union.

Disability: sources of advice
One of the key organisations working to improve life for disabled people is the Disability Alliance, a national federation of organisations of, and for, people with disabilities.

The aim of the Disability Alliance is to improve the living standards of disabled people, through providing advice and information to disabled people (and their families, carers and professional advisers) about their social security benefit entitlements and other entitlements. They are also a campaigning and research organisation.

The Directgov website also provides information for disabled people on:
  • employment
  • financial support
  • housing
  • health and social support
  • education and training
  • rights and obligations (including the Disability Discrimination Act)
  • motoring and transport
  • everyday access
  • travel and holidays
  • caring for someone
For older people, Help the Aged provides information regarding benefits such as disability living allowance and attendance allowance, while Age Concern also provides comprehensive benefits advice for older people.

Ethics
The BMA's Ethics Committee has produced guidance for doctors and the wider public on a wide range of issues, such as health records, confidentiality, consent and capacity, doctor patient relationships, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and human rights. This guidance is fully accessible to the public on the Health promotion and ethics section of the BMA's website.

In 2004, the BMA published Medical Ethics Today (MET), a comprehensive medical ethics handbook; it is available in most large public and university libraries. It covers issues such as consent to, and refusal of, treatment, confidentiality, health records, genetics, assisted reproduction, emergency care, and caring for patients at the end of life.

The 2007 updates to MET are available on the BMA's website in pdf format.

The General Medical Council, the doctors' regulatory body, has produced a wide range of ethical guidance for doctors, including Good Medical Practice (revised 2006) and further guidelines on confidentiality, prescribing and consent. The GMC also recently published specific guidance for doctors on treating patients under 18 years of age. The GMC's guidance on good practice can be accessed on their website.

The UK Clinical Ethics Network provides information and support to developing and existing Clinical Ethics Committees within the health service. Its website provides updated, reliable information on ethical issues that are commonly presented to Clinical Ethics Committees or which arise in medical practice. It also provides links to national policy and guidance on clinical ethics issues and links to Clinical Ethics Committees around the UK.

The Journal of Medical Ethics (part of BMJ Journals) is the official journal of the Institute of Medical Ethics. The journal seeks to promote ethical debate and conduct in scientific research and medical practice. Some articles are accessible free of charge.

Expert Patients Programme
In the UK, as many as 17.5 million adults are currently living with a long-term health condition, such as diabetes, chronic heart failure or arthritis (Reference 2).The Expert Patients Programme (EPP) is a training programme, designed to provide opportunities for people living with long-term chronic conditions and to help them develop new skills in managing their own condition.

This is done through local EPP courses, which aim to maintain the health, and improve the quality of life, of those taking part in the Programme. Expert Patient courses take place over six week (2.5 hours per week) and are led by people who, themselves, live with a long-term medical condition.

EPP courses used to be funded by the NHS, but the Expert Patients Programme recently became the first national Community Interest Company in the UK - now named the Expert Patient Programme Community Interest Company (EPP CIC).

You can find out more about the CIC Expert Patients Programme and local EPP courses on the EPP CIC website. There are now also EPP courses available for the carers of those living with a long-term condition or disability - see 'Looking after me - course for carers' on the home page.

The BMA Patient Liaison Group (PLG) published a discussion paper on the EPP in December 2005.

See also the heading Long-term medical conditions below.

Expert Witnesses
Expert witnesses provide expert advice in legal proceedings. The BMA has produced detailed guidance for doctors who are acting as expert witnesses in civil and criminal court cases (November 2006).

Eye conditions
The Royal College of Ophthalmologists has produced several useful patient information booklets on a range of eye-related disorders, including laser photorefractive surgery, age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, eye conditions related to diabetes, retinal detachment, glaucoma and corneal transplantation. These free booklets are available on their website (scroll down to Patient Information).

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has also issued guidance on laser eye surgery for treating refractive errors.

Family history
For those looking for biographical information about doctors, there is a useful BMA Library factsheet entitled Biographical information: doctors and other professions (2007).

Fees - why GPs sometimes charge fees
Information on the circumstances in which NHS GPs can charge their own patients fees is outlined in the BMA's leaflet Why do GPs sometimes charge fees?.

Information on all the fees agreed between the BMA and outside organisations can be accessed on the Fees Guidance section of the BMA's website.

Freedom of information
While the Data Protection Act gives patients the right to access their personal medical records, the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) 2000, which came into force in 2005, allows members of the public to ask for information about how all local public services are run, including government departments such as the Department of Health (DH), and NHS Trusts.

Responsibility for freedom of information has passed from the Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA) to the Ministry of Justice and general information on how the Freedom of Information Act 2000 works is available on the Ministry of Justice's website.

Responsibility for investigating any concerns or complaints relating to the Act, rests with the Office of the Information Commissioner, an independent public body that is responsible directly to Parliament.

The BMA Library has produced a factsheet on the Freedom of Information Act (December 2007).

Gambling
Following a resolution on gambling addiction by doctors at the BMA's annual representative meeting in 2006, the BMA's Board of Science undertook a review of the treatment services available in the United Kingdom for problem gamblers, including the treatment and prevention services available on the NHS.

The subsequent report, Gambling addiction and its treatment within the NHS: a guide for healthcare professionals, was published in January 2007. The report highlights a severe shortage of NHS treatment services for problem gamblers and makes recommendations on how the problem of gambling addiction should be addressed.

Appendix 3 of the report also provides details of private and charitable organisations offering advice and support to people with gambling problems in the UK.

The full text of our Board of Science report, Gambling addiction and its treatment within the NHS: a guide for healthcare, is available on our website.

General Medical Council
The General Medical Council (GMC) is the official body responsible for the registration and regulation of doctors in the UK. It provides a facility for checking a doctor's registration online.

The GMC also provides general guidance for doctors on Good Medical Practice and on more specific issues such as confidentiality, consent and good prescribing (see 'Guidance on good practice' on the home page).

The GMC has recently updated its guidance for doctors concerning the treatment of patients aged 0-18 and issued new guidelines for doctors on Personal Beliefs and Medical Practice, addressing the issue of potential conflicts between doctors' religious or moral beliefs, and the treatment they provide to patients.

This new guidance makes it clear that doctors are expected to set aside their personal beliefs where this is necessary to care for patients in line with the key principles set out in Good Medical Practice.

GPs
The NHS Choices website allows visitors to the site to search for details of all GP surgeries in England. You can do this via the Find Services search facility.

There are separate sections of the NHS website for: These websites also offer the facility of searching for local GP surgeries.

The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) oversees standards and training in general practice. Their website has a section for patients, the Patient Centre, which provides links to many sources of useful information on general practice.

One can also search the RCGP's non-clinical GP Guidance Database which contains details of current non-clinical guidance in general practice. The database does not contain advice regarding the treatment and management of specific conditions, but rather provides sources of advice and practical guidance on a wide range of issues encountered in general practice, for example discharge from hospital, mental health and out-of hours care.

Health information
Comprehensive information is provided on reliable sources of medical/health information in Finding reliable health information, on this website.

Health news
The National Library for Health (NLH) online has a section entitled 'Hitting the Headlines', which provides summaries on the accuracy of major health stories in the media. The aim of the service is to ensure that patients and healthcare professionals are better informed about the accuracy of healthcare stories in the media. Visit NLH's Hitting the Headlines archive here.

TNSMI Health News is a free, daily digest of healthcare articles appearing in the UK national press, prepared by TNS Media Intelligence, a media monitoring service. There is a simple search facility on the website.

The Health News section of BBC News Online is also very useful for those who have heard a health story in the media, but who are not sure where it originated from. Users can search for information by doing a keyword search of the site.

Finally, the new NHS Choices website now covers key health news stories in the media in its Behind the Headlines web section.

Health services research
The Department of Health (DH) has a Policy Research Programme which commissions research to support a wide range of policy activity in health and social care, including healthy living and social well-being, disease prevention, the role of the environment in health, social care for adults and children, the organisation of the NHS, and strategies for treating particular diseases or conditions. Find out about the DH's Policy Research Programme here.

Other useful sources of information on health services research include: Hippocratic Oath
The Hippocratic Oath was probably written in the fifth century BC and was intended to be affirmed by each doctor on entry to the medical profession. The Hippocratic Oath and its successors, such as the World Medical Association's Declaration of Geneva, have expressed a fundamental medical duty to pursue patients' best medical interests, to avoid harming or exploiting them, and to maintain their confidences. You can find the full text of the original Hippocratic Oath via the MedHist website at the Wellcome Trust.

Today, the Hippocratic Oath is not generally sworn by medical students upon qualification, since the language of the Oath has become outmoded.

However, about half of all UK medical schools administer an oath of some kind, either at the beginning of a student's medical studies or upon graduation, in order to formally acknowledge his or her commitment to medicine. Texts vary. Some use an updated version of the Hippocratic Oath, while others use the World Medical Association's International Code of Medical Ethics, known as the Declaration of Geneva (which was first adopted in 1948 and amended in 1968, 1983 and 1994 and editorially amended, most recently, in October 2006). Other medical graduates use an oath formulated by the medical school itself.

Although views differ about the value of making some form of oath, the BMA supports the practice of health professionals making a formal commitment to upholding ethical standards of conduct at the start of their careers.

History of medicine
The Wellcome Trust is an independent charity funding medical and other research. Its mission is to foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health. The Trust has a centre specifically devoted to the history of medicine, the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL.

Intute, a free online and information service, created by a network of UK universities and partners, including the Wellcome Trust, hosts a specific web resource, MedHist, which acts as a gateway to information about the history of medicine.

Hospitals
On the NHS Choices website you can search for hospitals in England by their name or location.

The NHS websites for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland also provide information on local hospitals.

There is information on the performance of NHS Hospital Trusts in the Performance Ratings section below.

Immunisation
You can link to information about recommended childhood and other immunisations, including the new pneumococcal vaccine for infants on the NHS website.

There is also further more in-depth guidance on childhood immunisations on the NHS website, provided by Clinical Knowledge Summaries (CKS) - a source of clinical knowledge, based on the best available evidence about the common conditions and symptoms managed in primary care.

In June 2003, the BMA's Board of Science published a comprehensive report entitled Childhood Immunisation: a guide for healthcare professionals, which is an in-depth look at the issue of childhood immunisation.

Incapacity benefit
The Public Information Unit at the BMA receives many queries relating to incapacity benefit. Incapacity Benefit is available to people who cannot work and who no longer qualify for Statutory Sick Pay. There are currently three types of Incapacity Benefit - lower rate short-term, higher rate short-term and long-term Incapacity Benefit.

Although doctors are involved in assessments regarding incapacity benefit, the BMA can, unfortunately, not comment on individual cases. There is, however, guidance on applying for incapacity benefit on the Jobcentreplus website (part of the Department for Work and Pensions - DWP). You can also contact the DWP General Benefit Enquiry number, Tel 0800 88 22 00, if you have a query about your medical assessment and they will advise you what to do.

The Citizens Advice Bureau also offers comprehensive benefits advice, while the Patient UK website provides a useful summary on incapacity benefit, including how to qualify and the procedures that need to be followed before a person can receive the benefit, such as having an independent medical assessment.

Long-term conditions - advice
The Long-term Conditions Alliance (LTCA) is an umbrella body for over 100 national voluntary organisations working to meet the needs of people with long-term medical conditions. You can access Connect, the LMCA's quarterly news journal, online. Subscription is free.

In February 2006, the Department of Health (DH) published Supporting people with long term conditions to self care: A guide to developing local strategies and good practice. This guide explains how health and social care services can help people with long-term medical conditions to self-care, through an integrated programme - including information, using self-monitoring devices and giving patients self-care skills education.

The self-care guide is available on the DH website.

In 2007, the BMA published Enabling people with long term conditions to self manage their health: a resource for GPs, a resource aimed at advising GPs on how to assist their patients in managing their long term conditions.

See also the Expert Patients Programme section above.

The King's Fund also carries out research into the management of long-term health conditions.

Market research
The BMA Library has produced a factsheet on sources of medical market research information (updated June 2007).

Medical books
The following are just some of the publishers that publish medical books:

Dorling Kindersley
Family Doctor Publications
Radcliffe Publishing
Blackwell Publishing
Royal Society of Medicine Press

Medical equipment
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is an executive agency of the Department of Health. It is responsible for ensuring that both medicines and medical devices meet appropriate standards of safety, quality and performance.

The MHRA oversees the work of 'Notified Bodies' (such as the British Standards Institute), which are responsible for ensuring that medium and high risk medical devices meet EU standards. The MHRA has a specific section on medical devices on its website.

The Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI) is the trade association for manufacturers and distributors of a wide range of medical products in the UK.

Medical events and conferences
Information about BMA conferences and courses, is available on the BMA website.

The BMA Library has also produced a factsheet on medical events (May 2005).

Medical journals
  • The British Medical Journal (BMJ) seeks to publish rigorously researched and reviewed scientific papers, in order to help doctors and medical students in their daily practice and lifelong learning. Many articles, particularly editorials and news items, are also suitable for the general public. The BMJ seeks to be at the forefront of the international debate on health.
    Online access to original research articles in the BMJ is free of charge from the moment of publication (although editorials and other content are only available to BMJ subscribers in the first year following publication). After one year, all content is free to all BMJ website users.

    Health professionals in countries included in the HINARI (Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative) list of resource-poor countries get full access to the BMJ free of charge.

    The student version of the BMJ, StudentBMJ, is still a free access publication.

    The BMJ Group also publishes medical journals covering most major medical specialties (e.g. Heart, Journal of Medical Ethics, Journal of Medical Genetics). Some journals in the group offer free access to the content of current and/or recent editions while charging for access to archives, while others offer a 'pay per article' facility for those who do not wish to subscribe. Find further information on the BMJ Journals website.

  • PubMed, is a service of the US National Library of Medicine and includes over 17 million citations for biomedical articles dating back to the 1950s. These citations are from MEDLINE and additional life science journals. PubMed includes links to many websites providing full text articles and other related resources.
  • PubMed Central is a digital archive of life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), developed and managed by NIH's National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). All journals held in the PubMed Central archive can be accessed free of charge, although some only after a given time period following publication, for example two, four or six months. PubMed Central's A-Z of archived journals.
  • The Lancet is another scientific medical journal containing up-to-date medical research papers and comment. Some articles can be accessed free-of-charge. There are also the Lancet Neurology, the Lancet Oncology and the Lancet Infectious Diseases Journals.

Medical libraries
The BMA Library has produced a factsheet on medical libraries in London (December 2007).

Medical museums in London
For a list of London’s medical museums, including contact details and opening times, visit the London's Museums of Health & Medicine website.

Medical terminology
The following medical dictionaries provide useful definitions of medical terms:

CancerWEB - The On-Line Medical Dictionary (OMD).
The OMD is a searchable dictionary which contains terms relating to biochemistry, cell biology, chemistry, medicine, molecular biology, physics, plant biology, radiobiology and science & technology. It includes: acronyms, jargon, theory, conventions, standards, institutions, projects, eponyms and history. The dictionary has been growing since early 1997 and now contains over 46,000 definitions. Entries are cross-referenced to each other and to additional web-based resources.

MedTerms.com - Dictionary (USA).
This is a dictionary produced by MedicineNet, Inc., an online healthcare media publishing company. The dictionary forms part of the MedicineNet.com portal which provides medical information for healthcare providers and consumers. It contains explanations for over 16,000 medical terms.

The NHS Direct Health Encyclopaedia also defines and explains hundreds of common medical terms and conditions.

Medicines
There is comprehensive information about medicines in Your medicines - useful sources of information on this website.

Men's health
The Men's Health Forum is a leading UK charity working to improve men's health. They have designed a website, Malehealth, which provides information and advice on a wide range of health issues affecting men, including a useful A-Z section.

Mental Capacity Act
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 governs decision-making on behalf of adults who have lost their mental capacity at some point in their lives (for example through severe dementia), or where the incapacitating condition has been present since birth. The Act came into force, in full, in October 2007, although most substantive parts of the Act came into force in April 2007.

The Act clearly has implications for patients who can no longer decide for themselves about, or give consent to, their medical treatment.

The BMA's Ethics Department has produced guidance for health professionals on the Act (April 2007), looking in particular at the key principles underlying the Act, including the concept of acting in the best interests of patients; at how the capacity of individuals should be assesses and by whom; at the new role for independent mental capacity advocates and at how advanced decisions by patients to refuse treatment have now been formally recognised in law.

A Code of Practice for the Mental Capacity Act was issued by the Lord Chancellor in April 2007. It provides guidance and information on how the Act will work in practice for anyone working with, or caring for, people who lack capacity - including family, friends and unpaid carers (source: Department of Constitutional Affairs website).

The Code of Practice is available on the Ministry of Justice's website, in addition to an information booklet on the Mental Capacity Act itself, in six parts.

Mental health
As many as 1 in 4 people in the UK will suffer from a mental health problem at some point in their lifetime (Reference 3).

There are several well-known organisations in the UK which provide advice and support for those suffering from mental health problems:

MIND. Information line: 0845 766 0163
SANE. Helpline: 0845 767 8000
Depression Alliance, Information line: 0845 123 23 20

The Mental Health Foundation also publishes booklets on a wide range of mental health conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anorexia nervosa and anxiety.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists provides health information on different mental health problems, such as anorexia, anxiety and phobias, depression, memory problems, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress, schizophrenia and sleep problems.

The National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE) was launched in June 2002, following a national consultation from October to December 2001. NIMHE aims to improve the quality of life for people of all ages who are experiencing mental health problems through conducting projects in a wide variety of mental health areas, such as suicide prevention and older people's mental health; its main sponsor is the Department of Health.

National service frameworks
National service frameworks (NSFs) have been developed by the Department of Health (DH) in association with external reference groups and set national standards for the treatment of particular medical conditions.

A rolling programme of NSFs was launched in 1998 and they now cover the following conditions and services: blood pressure, cancer, children's services, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), coronary heart disease, diabetes, long term conditions, long term neurological conditions, mental health and renal services.

There is information about National Service Frameworks on the DH website.

NHS
The NHS Choices website provides information about NHS services in England, in addition to access to a very wide range of health information for the public. There are also links to the NHS websites for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (under 'More NHS').

NHS Direct Online
NHS Direct Online is a gateway to information for the public about NHS services in England and about specific medical conditions. The NHS Direct Online Health Encyclopaedia provides information on illnesses, conditions, tests and treatments. NHS Direct Online also provides:

  • a self-help guide
  • an online health information enquiry service
  • answers to common health questions
While information about NHS services on NHS Direct Online covers England only, the main NHS Choices website can link web users to relevant sources of information about the NHS in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

NHS: electronic health records
At the moment patients' NHS health records are stored in a variety of ways - on paper, on computers and on film (X-rays etc). In future, each patient will have an electronic NHS Care Record and it is intended that systems across the NHS will be integrated so that healthcare information can be shared, electronically, across the NHS.

It is anticipated that patients will have both a Detailed Care Record and a Summary Care Record. It is the Summary Care Record which will eventually be uploaded onto the national database, known as the NHS Spine (unless a patient chooses to opt out of having this information uploaded); it will include information on allergies; adverse drug reactions and major treatment that has been, or is being, provided to the patient.

For further information about electronic health records, and about how patients with concerns should be able to opt out of having their records held centrally, visit the Your Health Records section of the Public and Patients website.

Further information about the NHS Care Record is provided in the leaflet, Your health information, confidentiality and the NHS Care Records Service - select Confidentiality Leaflet.

There is also an NHS Care Records Service Information Line that the public and patients can call for more information, Tel 0845 603 8510.

Nutrition
Useful sources of information on nutrition include the British Nutrition Foundation, a scientific and educational charity, and the Food Standards Agency, an independent food safety watchdog set up by in 2000 to protect the health of the public and consumer interests in relation to food.

The Food Standards Agency website provides information on topics such as nutrition (for example, safe upper levels of vitamin and mineral consumption), food labelling, food safety and food hygiene. From the home page there are also links to information about topical issues, such as how to reduce dietary intake of salt and trans fats.
There is information on the Department of Health's website about what counts as 5 portions a day (of fruit and vegetables).

Obesity
In addition to seeking advice from your local GP surgery, a useful source of information on tackling weight problems is Weight Concern, a registered charity set up in 1997. Their website provides independent information on healthy eating and losing weight and also discusses what medical assistance is available to tackle obesity.

Weightwise is another website providing useful dietary advice for those worried about their weight; it has been developed by the British Dietetic Association with support from the Department of Health. The advice provided is written by registered dieticians and is based on the latest available scientific evidence.

Overseas medical organisations
There is a BMA Library factsheet listing contact details for many international medical organisations and medical associations.

Patient choice
The Department of Health (DH) has a section on its website dealing with Government policy on Patient Choice.

Current patient choice initiatives include:

  • the 'Choose and Book' scheme; from 1 April 2008, patients requiring planned NHS hospital care (as opposed to emergency treatment) will be able to choose treatment (with a few exceptions, e.g. maternity care) from any provider that meets recognised NHS clinical standards
  • improved access to NHS treatment, for example through the expansion of NHS walk-in centres.
  • programmes seeking to provide better health information for patients, in order to help patients make choices about their healthcare (including a Choosing Your Hospital FAQ on the new NHS Choices website).
Performance indicators
The Healthcare Commission, established on 1 April 2004, was originally responsible for publishing the first annual star ratings for acute, specialist, ambulance, mental health and primary care trusts (PCTs) in England. You can access the 2005 NHS performance ratings on the Healthcare Commission's website.

Since 2006, the star ratings system has been replaced by a new approach to healthcare assessments, the annual health check, which scores NHS trusts on many different aspects of their performance, including how effectively they manage their finances and the quality of services they deliver to patients (taking into account factors such as patient safety and cleanliness), with a reduced number of individual targets that need to be met by NHS Trusts.

The first annual health check for NHS Trusts was published in October 2006, while the results of the second annual health check were published in October 2007.

On the NHS Choices website, information has recently been added to enable patients to compare the performance of hospitals in a given geographical area for a wide range of treatments, such as an arthroscopy or treatment for kidney stones. Limited information is provided for a wide range of indicators, such as:
  • How long will I have to wait for the operation?
  • Does the surgical department have a lot of experience in this operation?
  • What is the overall quality of the service?
  • Are patients treated with respect?
You can access the data on the NHS website - 'Compare Hospitals'.

In March 2008 a new Code of Practice was published by the Department of Health setting out the rules governing the advertising of NHS-funded services to patients. This is primarily to ensure that NHS providers are not misleading patients about the quality of their services in any way: ie information for patients must not be "misleading, inaccurate, unfair or offensive" (Reference 4).

The Healthcare Commission and the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland have together developed a website to help patients who need heart surgery to make informed choices about their care and treatment. The website provides, for the first time, information about survival rates for patients who have had certain types of heart surgery at different surgical units across Great Britain.

The figures for survival rates for heart operations in England and Wales during 2005/2006 (including heart bypass operations and aortic valve replacement operations) were published in August 2007.

Access the Heart Surgery in Great Britain website here.

In Scotland, mortality rates for surgeons have been published for the first time in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act. The figures are available on the NHS Scotland website.

In commenting on this development, the chairman of the BMA's Scottish consultants committee, has said that, while supporting the publication of surgical mortality rates in principle, the BMA has some concerns about how this information is presented and may be interpreted by the public.

The NHS Scotland website, indeed, says that if this data is taken out of context, the figures may not provide reliable information about surgeons’ performance.

Prescribing - guidance for doctors
The General Medical Council (GMC) has produced comprehensive guidance for doctors on prescribing, entitled Good Practice in Prescribing Medicines. Updated in 2006, the guidance covers a wide range of prescribing issues, including prescribing unlicensed medicines, prescribing for outpatients, issuing repeat prescriptions and good practice in remote prescribing by internet or telephone.

Prescriptions - help with charges
Information regarding help for patients with prescription charges, through tax credits and pre-payment certificates, is available on the Prescription Pricing Authority's website.

Primary care trusts
Primary care trusts (PCTs) are local NHS bodies in England, responsible for the coordination of NHS primary healthcare at the local level. PCTs have recently been reorganised and amalgamated within the UK; the number of PCTs has gone down from 303 to 152. PCTs now also control around 80 per cent of the total NHS budget. Find more about PCTs and other types of NHS Trusts on the NHS website.

You can find contact details for your local PCT via the NHS Choices website. You can also call NHS Direct, the 24-hour NHS helpline, for the contact details of your local PCT: Tel 0845 4647.

Private healthcare
The Healthcare Commission is now responsible for the regulation and inspection of private healthcare providers in England, including cosmetic surgery and laser clinics. There is a specific section on their website on independent healthcare.

If you have a complaint about a private hospital or clinic, you should contact the relevant regional office of the Healthcare Commission. Further advice and contact details are provided on the Healthcare Commission's website.

The equivalent body regulating private healthcare in Wales (since 1 April 2006) is the Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, while in Scotland it is the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care.

The BMA's Private Practice Committee has produced a code of practice, setting out recommended standards of practice for NHS consultants in England regarding their private work (updated March 2006).

In 2004, the BMA's Ethics Committee produced guidance for doctors on the interface between NHS and private treatment and how, and in what circumstances, patients can move from private to NHS treatment.

Public health
The Health Protection Agency (HPA), established on 1 April 2003, is the national organisation for England and Wales with responsibility for protecting public health and reducing the impact of infectious diseases, chemical hazards, poisons and radiation hazards.

It has assumed the functions and responsibilities of the former Public Health Laboratory Service, the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research, the National Focus for Chemical Incidents and the National Poisons Information Service. The HPA merged with the National Radiological Protection Board in April 2005.

The HPA offers official health advice on infectious diseases and provides links from the home page of its website to information about topical health protection issues (current hot topics include avian influenza, HIV, healthcare-associated infections and tuberculosis). The HPA website has an A-Z listing on its website of all topics on which it provides information.

Royal Colleges
The medical Royal Colleges oversee standards and training in the various medical and surgical specialties. Some of the Royal Colleges also provide information for patients on their websites. You can link directly to their websites here: Sick certification
Employers pay Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) for the first 28 weeks that patients are sick.

The Citizens Advice Bureau's (CAB) Advice Guide website provides guidance for the public on the wide range of benefits available for the sick and those with disabilities and on how to obtain such benefits (for example, statutory sick pay, incapacity benefit, disability living allowance and attendance allowance).

Further information about SSP is also available on the Department for Work and Pensions website.

For information about Incapacity Benefit, go to the heading Incapacity Benefit above.

Skin Conditions/Dermatology
The British Association of Dermatologists, a professional association for doctors who are skin specialists, has a patient information and leaflets section on its website, providing information on a wide range of skin conditions and contact details for a wide range of related support groups.

Smoking
In 2002, the BMA's Board of Science and Education & the Tobacco Control Resource Centre produced a report on passive smoking: Towards smoke-free public places.

Since then the BMA has produced further reports and briefing papers on smoking and health including:

The human cost of tobacco (2004)
Behind the smokescreen: the myths and the facts (2005)
Smokefree public places - a briefing paper by our Parliamentary Unit (January 2007)

A ban on smoking in enclosed spaces came into effect in Scotland on 26 April 2006. As a result of the passing of the Government's Health Act in 2006, since 1 July 2007, smoking has been prohibited in virtually all enclosed public spaces and workplaces in England (including all bars and restaurants).

The following organisations provide advice on how to give up smoking: Specialists/consultants
Some patients may wish to know more about the specialist to whom they have been referred, or to locate a particular consultant. Several helpful websites provide useful information about specialists which patients can discuss with their GP. The following websites allow searching according to specialty, geographical area or a consultant's name. The information is largely compiled by doctors:

www.drfoster.co.uk (see the Consultants Guide).

www.specialistinfo.com. This website, produced by, provides details on over 36,000 medical consultants working in the UK. There is now a small charge for accessing information on this website, although anyone having problems accessing the relevant information, can telephone www.specialistinfo.com on Tel (01423) 562003.

There is more detailed information about specialist treatment on the BMA's website in our web section NHS hospital treatment and information about specialists.

Surgery
The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) has a section on its website entitled Health Information for Surgery Patients, which enables visitors to the site to access a number of useful information guides for patients. Titles include:
  • Child Patients' Rights and Responsibilities
  • Children Going into Hospital
  • Having an Operation?
  • Patients' Rights and Responsibilities
The site provides other useful more general advice for patients in its Patient Information section, including a 'Frequently Asked Questions' guide on various aspects of surgery.

The RCS Patient Liaison Group has also started producing a Patients and Surgeons newsletter (latest edition autumn/winter 2007).

Travel health advice
    Since 31 December 2005, the old E111 form has ceased to be valid. UK travellers to EEA countries or Switzerland now need a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) to qualify for free, or reduced-cost, medical treatment during their visit. There is more information on applying for a European Health Insurance Card on the DH website.

  • The NHS has produced comprehensive guidance on immunisations for overseas travel, based on the Department of Health's publication, 'Immunisation Against Infectious Disease' and its supplement 'Health Information for Overseas Travel'.
  • The Fit forTravel website, produced by NHS Scotland, is also a useful source of travel health information.
  • The National Travel Health Network and Centre, NaTHNaC, has been created to promote clinical standards in travel medicine by improving the quality of travel health advice available to GP practices and other health care providers. The NaTHNaC website also provides general health information for travellers on the infectious and non-infectious health risks that they may encounter whilst overseas.
  • The World Health Organisation (WHO) has a very useful section on its website, primarily intended for health professionals, entitled International Travel and Health, offering guidance on such topics as air travel, environmental health risks, infectious diseases, immunisation and malaria.
  • The Health Protection Agency's Advisory Committee on Malaria Prevention for UK travellers (ACMP) has produced guidelines for healthcare workers and prospective travellers on options for malaria prevention, with regular updates.
Treatments - guidance
Information on the recommended treatments available for a wide range of common conditions, such as back pain, depression, epilepsy, high blood pressure, migraine and certain types of cancer, is now available on the BestTreatments website for a small charge per item.

BestTreatments is based on information in the British Medical Journal's worldwide survey of the best, most up-to-date medical research, Clinical Evidence.

Much of the content of BMJ BestTreatments has also recently been made available, free-of-charge, on the website of the pharmacy company, Boots, following an agreement in 2007 between Boots and the BMJ Group.

For other sources of clinical information on up-to-date treatments, visit our web section, Finding reliable health information on the internet.

Universities/medical schools
You can find contact details for UK medical schools in the BMA's publication Becoming a Doctor: entry in 2008.

Waiting times
On the DH website, information is provided about standard waiting times for first outpatient appointments and hospital admissions for treatment, in different NHS PCTs and Strategic Health Authorities.

Patients in Scotland also have access to an online waiting times database, allowing them to check outpatient waiting times in various regions of Scotland for eight different specialties: general medicine, dermatology, general surgery, ENT, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, urology and gynaecology. The information can be accessed on the NHS Scotland Waiting Times website.

Walk-in centres
There are now more than 90 NHS walk-in centres in England. You can access a list of NHS walk-in centres and more information about the services they provide on the NHS Choices website. There are currently no walk-in centres in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Women's health
The WellBeing of Women charity works in partnership with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to raise funds for research into women's reproductive health. The Wellbeing of Women website provides health information on a range of their health campaigns; (this information service is supported by BMI Healthcare).

X-Rays, safety guidance
The Health Protection Agency's Radiation Protection Division, together with the College of Radiographers, the Royal College of Radiologists and the Royal College of General Practitioners, have produced advice for patients on the safety of X-rays.

References
  1. Cosmetic Treatment Self Regulation, Independent Healthcare Advisory Services website. Available at http://www.independenthealthcare.org.uk/joomla/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=47&Itemid=123 .
  2. Improving chronic disease management, Department of Health, 2004. Available at http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4075214.
  3. MIND (National Association for Mental Health) website. Available at http://www.mind.org.uk/About+Mind/
  4. Code of practice for the promotion of NHS-funded services, Department of Health, 2008. Available at http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Responsestoconsultations/DH_083556

© British Medical Association 2008

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