Reason for the decision

Since NICE guideline CG62 was placed on the static list in 2014, a number of issues relating to the recommendations have been made known to us. These include:

• Poor uptake of the Public Health England programme on vaccination against pertussis (whooping cough) for pregnant women which could be addressed by including in NICE guideline CG62.
• The NHS England: Saving babies’ lives care bundle which aims to improve awareness of fetal movement and may impact on relevant recommendations in NICE guideline CG62.
• The alcohol guidelines review by the Department of Health which includes recommendations that are now in conflict with NICE guideline CG62.

These issues were discussed in full with topic experts and it was agreed that NICE guideline CG62’s position on the static list is no longer justified. The guideline (first published 2003 and partially updated in 2008) needs to be updated using new methodology and revisions are needed to direct users to a range of updated screening policies and relevant vaccination programmes. In addition, topic experts highlighted a number of areas that they felt might need updating or need to be considered for inclusion such as (but not limited to), timing of appointments, information giving, management of women with pre-existing conditions (including how generic NICE guidance interfaces with the pregnancy guidelines), pre-conception advice and planning, and greater emphasis on mental health and social factors, linking where relevant to other NICE guidance. We did not search for new evidence relating to other clinical areas in the guideline as part of this focused surveillance. A full scoping exercise is needed to determine whether the current focus of the guideline remains applicable to current practice and what additional areas should be covered.

New evidence

We were notified of several programmes of work by NHS England, Public Health England and the Department of Health that could impact on current guideline recommendations.

Views of topic experts

We considered the views of topic experts, including those who helped to develop the guideline. This included discussion with invited topic experts at a workshop.

Views of stakeholders

Stakeholders are consulted only if we decide not to update the guideline following checks at 4 and 8 years after publication. Because this was an exceptional surveillance review, and the decision was to update, we did not consult on the decision.

See ensuring that published guidelines are current and accurate in ‘Developing NICE guidelines: the manual’ for more details on our consultation processes.

NICE Surveillance programme project team

• Sarah Willett
  Associate Director
• Philip Alderson
  Consultant Clinical Adviser
• Emma McFarlane
  Technical Adviser
• Katrina Sparrow
  Technical Adviser

The NICE project team would like to thank the topic experts who participated in the surveillance process.