Minister for Health publishes updated national Standards for Clinical Practice Guidance
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From: Department of Health
- Published on: 15 May 2025
- Last updated on: 15 May 2025
- Standards for Clinical Practice support development of up-to-date, evidence-based clinical policies, procedures and guidelines to achieve best possible outcomes for patients
- Standards also provide a benchmark for consistency and best practice for all healthcare professionals and organisations in public and private healthcare services who are involved in the development of clinical practice guidance
The Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has today published the updated Standards for Clinical Practice Guidance by the National Clinical Effectiveness Committee (NCEC).
Standards for Clinical Practice Guidance support the development of high quality, up-to-date, evidence-based clinical policies, procedures and guidelines that guide clinical decision-making and achieve the best possible outcomes for patients. They also provide a benchmark for consistency and best practice for healthcare professionals and organisations in both public and private healthcare services across the country.
Minister Carroll MacNeill said:
"These standards are crucial in supporting our healthcare professionals and services to provide safe, effective, and high-quality care to all patients in a consistent manner across the country. I thank the Committee and those involved in this important work, and the wider work on National Clinical Guidelines.”
These Standards have been updated to incorporate recent innovations and progress in healthcare. The updated Standards emphasise inclusivity, transparency, using thorough methods of research, adapting to evolving healthcare needs and standards.
The updated Standards are available at gov.ie - Clinical Effectiveness.
Notes
National Clinical Effectiveness Committee (NCEC)
The role of the National Clinical Effectiveness Committee (NCEC) is to recommend guidelines and audit to the Minister for Health to become NCEC National Clinical Guidelines and NCEC National Clinical Audit for implementation in Irish healthcare.
It does this by:
- prioritising clinical guidelines and clinical audit that are important to national policy and the Irish health system
- assessing clinical guidelines and clinical audit against criteria to judge that they have been developed in the best possible way. This assures that NCEC National Clinical Guidelines and NCEC National Clinical Audit are based on best available evidence, have involved key people, including patients, in their development and have examined the cost involved in implementation
This means that all NCEC National Clinical Guidelines and NCEC National Clinical Audit include an implementation plan (the how of implementation) and a budget impact analysis (the cost of implementation).
Clinical guidelines and clinical audit that successfully go through these steps are recommended to the Minister for Health through the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for endorsement and publications as NCEC National Clinical Guidelines or NCEC National Clinical Audit.