Medicines adherence

Issue date: January 2009

Medicines adherence
Involving patients in decisions about prescribed medicines and supporting adherence

NICE clinical guideline 76
Developed by the National Collaborating Centre for Primary Care

NICE clinical guideline 76 Medicines adherence Ordering information You can download the following documents from www.nice.org.uk/CG76 • The NICE guideline (this document) – all the recommendations. • A quick reference guide – a summary of the recommendations for healthcare professionals. • ‘Understanding NICE guidance’ – a summary for patients and carers. • The full guideline – all the recommendations, details of how they were developed, and reviews of the evidence they were based on. For printed copies of the quick reference guide or ‘Understanding NICE guidance’, phone NICE publications on 0845 003 7783 or email [e-mail] and quote: • N1759 (quick reference guide) • N1760 (‘Understanding NICE guidance’).

NICE clinical guidelines are recommendations about the treatment and care of people with specific diseases and conditions in the NHS in England and Wales. This guidance represents the view of NICE, which was arrived at after careful consideration of the evidence available. Healthcare professionals are expected to take it fully into account when exercising their clinical judgement. However, the guidance does not override the individual responsibility of healthcare professionals to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual patient, in consultation with the patient and/or guardian or carer, and informed by the summary of product characteristics of any drugs they are considering. Implementation of this guidance is the responsibility of local commissioners and/or providers. Commissioners and providers are reminded that it is their responsibility to implement the guidance, in their local context, in light of their duties to avoid unlawful discrimination and to have regard to promoting equality of