About this toolkit

The aim of the NHS Ayrshire and Arran guidelines toolkit is to make it easier and quicker to implement evidence-based guidance and thus improve patient safety. 

The audience for this website and app is NHS Ayrshire & Arran staff and associated local H&SCP staff.

The Right Decisions web and mobile app are part of the Right Decision Service (RDS.) The RDS is endorsed and funded by Scottish Government Digital Health and Care as Scotland’s national decision support service. It is a key deliverable from Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Strategy and Delivery Plan.

Alternative formats (e.g. PDF) and master copies of guidelines are retained by Clinical Governance and/or the relevant department/service and may also be available on Athena.

All guidelines and pathways on the NHS Ayrshire & Arran guidelines toolkit have been through the clinical governance process of the relevant department/service. When a new version of a guideline is approved, it is passed to the Right Decisions (RDS) team to update the content to the new version. 

Version and review dates for each guideline and pathway are visible on the right hand side panel of the guideline/pathway. There will also be a warning notice if the guideline/pathway has passed its review date.

Ongoing content approval, development and updating of the toolkit comes under the remit of the NHS Ayrshire & Arran Decision Support Reference Group.

The governance process is outlined in the Governance section.

Medicines information comes under the remit of the Area Drugs and Therapeutic Committee and is not included in this website and app. The NHSAAA Medicines - Adult Therapeutics Handbook resource is intended as a reference source for education about the safe and effective use of medicines.

Quality assurance

• Risks to safety of patients/service users have been identified and mitigated.
• Functional testing, usability testing and user acceptance testing have been carried out.
• A plan has been defined for monitoring and acting on feedback and complaints.

Reliability of information 

NHS Ayrshire & Arran uses its best efforts to ensure the accuracy and reliability of information on this toolkit in accordance with the policies defined for this toolkit. However, no guarantees are made that the information contained on this toolkit or on linked websites is accurate, complete, and current at any given time. Information presented on this toolkit or associated sites may be changed at any time. The resources made available on this toolkit are intended to assist health and social care professionals and citizens in NHS Ayrshire & Arran and are for information only. The toolkit is not intended in any way to replace the advice of health and care professionals.

Nothing on this toolkit is intended to constitute advice. Specific advice should be sought in specific situations from a properly qualified health or care professional.

Users of this toolkit agree to inform NHS Ayrshire & Arran using the feedback form if they should come across any material contained which they consider to be potentially in breach of any of the published NHS Ayrshire & Arran policies or of any relevant legislation for the appropriate remedial action to be taken.

The mobile app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play.

1. Search your app store for Right Decisions 
2. Install Right Decisions: Health & Care (Tactuum) 
3. Open the app and "Get started"
4. Choose if you wish to select resources only for health & social care staff.
5. Search or browse for NHS Ayrshire and Arran and choose appropriate toolkit e.g. NHS Ayrshire & Arran guidelines.
6. Select "Add to my toolkits"
7. Open toolkit.

The toolkit will be saved in your "My toolkits" tab to give you easy access offline.

You can also find short videos on how to download the apps under the Resources for end users of RDS.

It is possible to search across the Right Decisions website/app as a whole or just within the NHS Ayrshire & Arran guidelines toolkit. 

If you search Right Decisions as a whole, bear in mind that information from other boards may be retrieved.

If you search within the NHS Ayrshire & Arran guidelines toolkit, the content will be specific to that board.

To search the website:

Type a search term into the box in the top right hand side of the screen. The search box will indicate whether you are searching everything or just NHS Ayrshire & Arran guidelines.

A search is made of the title of the guidelines/pathways and their content and a number of results will be retrieved.

Choose the guideline or pathway that is most relevant to your needs. 

To search the app:

It is possible to search all Right Decisions toolkits or a specific toolkit.

To search NHS Ayrshire & Arran guidelines, go to My Toolkits and select the NHS Ayrshire & Arran guidelines toolkit.

Use the magnifying glass to search the content.

A search is made of the title of the guidelines/pathways and their content and a number of results will be retrieved.

Choose the guideline or pathway that is most relevant to your needs.

Some sections are password protected as they may contain information that should only be accessed by authorised staff. If you require access to a guideline or section thereof which is password protected, you should contact the author of the guideline or relevant member of staff responsible. 

If you require assistance in this, please contact aa.rightdecisions@scot.nhs.uk.

To update a guideline or pathway, please refer to the the governance section.

Please refer the governance section.

Please contact us at:

aa.rightdecisions@aapct.scot.nhs.uk

If you have any questions, comments or feedback about this toolkit, please contact us:

aa.rightdecisions@aapct.scot.nhs.uk

Feedback using this email address will be monitored Monday-Friday excluding public holidays and escalated as appropriate.

The content within the toolkit complies with copyright legislation and that permission to embed content from external sources has been obtained where required.

Flaticon images have been used as icons within this toolkit. The RDS use of Flaticon images is covered by the licence paid by Tactuum Ltd as software provider of the RDS platform.

Unless otherwise indicated, copyright in this app/website is retained by NHS Ayrshire & Arran 2024.

NHS Ayrshire & Arran is committed to making its websites and mobile applications accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This accessibility statement applies to NHS Ayrshire & Arran content provided on Right Decisions (RDS).

RDS technology complies with W3C AA standards and further information can be found in the RDS accessibility statement 

This toolkit should be used by qualified health and social care staff and should not be used by members of the public as a substitute for professional advice.

NHS Ayrshire & Arran hopes that the information in this toolkit will be useful to its healthcare professionals, but it accepts no responsibility and offers no warranties for the content or your use of it, as far as the law allows us to exclude such liability. 

Clinical knowledge is constantly changing. As new information become available, changes in treatment, procedures, equipment and the use of drugs become necessary. The developers and contributors have taken care to ensure that the information given is correct and current. However, users of this resource are strongly advised to confirm that the information complies with the latest legislation and standards of practice. 

All use of this resource is subject to Scots law and the jurisdiction of the Scottish courts and is subject to this disclaimer. Any views given on the site are not necessarily those of NHS Ayrshire & Arran or anyone connected with us. 

NHS Ayrshire & Arran is not responsible for the content of external websites which link to or are linked to by this toolkit. Some external links may be to websites that also offer commercial services. If a link to a particular website is included on our site, it does not mean that NHS Ayrshire & Arran officially endorses that website, its owners, products or services.