A clinical practice guideline on osteoarthritis is being developed for use in the NHS in England and Wales.

Although individuals and organisations not registered as stakeholders are able to comment, NICE recommends that you contact the registered stakeholder organisation that most closely represents your interests and pass your comments to them as they work closely with stakeholder organisations and take their views very seriously.

steps is a registered stakeholder for the osteoarthritis guideline and commented on the scope. You can download our submission on the scope of the guidelines by clicking on the link on the right of this page.

You can download the documents on the Guidelines from the Nice website by clicking on the link;

http://guidance.nice.org.uk/page.aspx?o=439368

The full version describes the evidence and views that have been considered, and sets out the provisional recommendations that have been developed.

The (NICE) short version presents the provisional recommendations only with some brief supporting information.

When sending your comments to us it would be easier for us if you could follow the format of the NICE comments pro forma document - you can download a steps pro forma from the column on the right. You are welcome to send in your comments to NICE directly using their pro forma from the website, but for the greatest impact we need to be able to incorporate all your comments into our response, so please do email a copy to Sue Banton at the steps office sue@steps-charity.org.uk