Submit guidance

TAM (Treatments and Medicines) NHS Highland
NHS Highland

TAM (Treatment and Medicines) is the recommended resource for point-of-care therapeutic guidance for clinicians working in NHS Highland. It is a publicly available website and downloadable mobile app. TAM is governed by the TAMSG of the ADTC.

This includes: 

  • Local and national therapeutic guidelines.
  • Therapeutic protocols.
  • Only those Standard Operating Procedures that are therapeutic and cross multiple departments/sectors.
  • Formulary monographs and information. 

Does not include: 

  • Policies 
  • Departmental Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
  • Other NHS Highland guidance eg: Organisational, Financial, Staff and eHealth.

For these documents please follow: Revised Policy for Management of Policies, Procedures, and other Written Controlled Documents.

Notes: 

  • No patient identifiable information is hosted on TAM.
  • Information that is not suitable for public access, eg. forms and charts for clinical use, is available via a secure link to the forms library of the NHS Highland intranet.

A note on patient information resources and forms/charts that make up a patient's clinical case note. 

  • TAM guidelines can link to patient information resources and to forms/charts, however please note that these are outwith the governance of the TAMSG. The Lead Reviewer and authorising department is responsible for the governance of these documents.  

Developing TAM guidance

Therapeutic guidance can be submitted by any Health or Social Care Professional employed by NHS Highland.

The development and maintenance of high quality in-house therapeutic information takes time and effort. Before attempting this process, other reputable sources of information must be thoroughly checked to see if the information is already available.

New guideline

Complete ALL sections of the checklist. Following the checklist ensures that your guideline is needed, relevant, clinically accurate and has multidisciplinary and cross-sector involvement. 

Use the guideline template to structure your guidance. We appreciate that one size does not fit all, however using the template structure, where possible, helps to ensure that your guidance provides the relevant information. 

As per the checklist, all guidance needs to be finalised and be approved by the Departmental Clinical Lead prior to submission to the TAMSG for ratification.

Reviewing guidance

The TAM team will contact the Lead Reviewer for the guideline when the guideline is due to be reviewed. However guidance can be reviewed at any stage if amendments are needed to it. 

For further information and support, contact the TAM team at: nhsh.tam@nhs.scot

Multidisciplinary and cross-sector involvement. 

Any sector or department that will be impacted by the guideline needs to be consulted in the development of it. 

If the guideline is expected to impact on GP workload, the GP subcommittee needs to approve it prior to ratification at the TAMSG. 

Primary care representation: 

  • For a GP rep, contact: Deputy Medical Director, Primary Care
  • For a Primary Care Pharmacy rep, contact: Associate Director of Pharmacy, Primary Care
  • For a Community Pharmacy rep, contact: Associate Director of Pharmacy, Community Pharmacy
  • For a Community Nursing rep, contact: 

Lay representation:

  • Person-centred care includes having patients involved in developing guidance and information about their care. 
  • Information on how to develop a network of lay representatives for your service is included here: Communications and Engagement Team (scot.nhs.uk) (NHS Highland intranet access required)

Argyll and Bute and Highland Health and Social Care Partnerships:

  • Guidance can be developed by either HSCP or both.
  • If guidance is written by one HSCP it can be shared with the relevant team from the other HSCP to see if it can adopted/adapted for use there. 
  • All newly developed guidance states whether the guidance is relevant for All NHS Highland or the individual HSCPs only. 

Contact nhsh.tam@nhs.scot if you need support with representation. 

Developing patient information resources

The development and maintenance of high quality in-house patient information resources takes A LOT of time and effort. Before attempting this process, other reputable sources of patient information MUST be thoroughly checked to see if the information is already available.

PLEASE NOTE: There is NO governance group for patient information. The author assumes responsibility for the information developed or chosen, including its timely review, and should seek approval from the department that it is developed for.  

Health Information Resource Service (HIRS)

HIRS provides health information and has an extensive health improvement resources library. This offers a wide range of health related materials for loan, free of charge, to everyone working or living within the Highlands and Argyll and Bute.

Resources consist of  Leaflets, Laminated Posters, Models, DVDs, Training Packs, Games and Equipment.  Please visit our website at HPAC to order resources. 

  • To upload your patient information resource onto HIRS, complete the: HIRS accession form and send to: hirs.mailbox@nhs.scot.
To include patient information in your guideline, please include a link to the information in the TAM guideline template. If no link is available send the information directly to: nhsh.tam@nhs.scot. 

Developing forms/charts

PLEASE NOTE: There is NO governance group that oversees the development and maintenance of forms or charts that are part of the patients' clinical record. The author assumes responsibility for the information developed or chosen, including its timely review, and should seek approval from the department that it is developed for.  

Prescription charts

  • Please contact the Medicines Safety Subgroup and the HEPMA team for advice.
  • Once finalised and approved, charts should be sent to Medical Illustration for formatting. 
  • Once complete the chart should be made available via PECOS for supply and ordering. 
  • If relevant, a link or the ordering details (eg PECOS code) can be sent to: nhsh.tam@nhs.scot for adding to the relevant guideline.

Forms

  • Once forms have been finalised and approved, please send to ehealth for uploading to the forms library. 
  • If a form is to be linked to from a TAM guideline:
    • Send the link to the form to nhsh.tam@nhs.scot for adding to the relevant guideline.
    • Or send the form to: nhsh.tam@nhs.scot where we will upload it to the forms library of the intranet and add a link to the relevant guideline. 

Formulary submission process