How we work: Linking to and from NHS Choices

Linking to and from NHS Choices

If you would like NHS Choices to link to your website please download our links self-assessment form (PDF, 128kb) to check if your site is likely to meet our criteria.

To submit a link for consideration, please email nhschoicesservicedesk@nhs.net.

NHS Choices includes links to hundreds of external websites on article pages across the site and in our links library. These links are provided to give users quick access to the widest possible range of high-quality information resources on health.

We take great care over the websites we link to and review them regularly, but we are not responsible for the content of those sites. The inclusion of a link to an external website from NHS Choices should not, therefore, be interpreted as an endorsement of that site, its content, or any product or service it may provide.

Transactions between users and any external site are not the responsibility of NHS Choices. Read our terms and conditions.

Removal of links

If you would like us to remove a link to your website from NHS Choices, please contact us by emailing nhschoicesservicedesk@nhs.net. Note that unless you have a legal right to demand removal, such removal will be at our discretion.

How our links are chosen

Before we link to an external website we perform a rigorous check to assess its suitability. We do not link to sites in return for cash, services or any other consideration in kind.

It is a requirement of all websites that we link to that they:

are free to access
do not require registration to view basic content
make a clear distinction between normal editorial content and any advertising they may carry
have not been set up solely for the purposes of ordering consumables

We also ask that external websites should:

clearly state their sources of funding
have a quality assurance procedure
present a responsible perspective, reflecting the existence of choices
are regularly reviewed and kept up to date
on health matters, use current and reliable clinical evidence that is verifiable from other sources
contain a link to www.nhs.uk

Please note that these requirements do not generally apply to sites, such as the Google Play Store and the iTunes App Store, that have a primary purpose of providing access to a wide range of digital tools including, but not restricted to, those categorised as being relevant to health and care. Where we judge it to be helpful to our users for us to link to such sites in order to provide access to specific digital tools, we may do so without reference to some or all of the terms of our external links policy.

Linking to NHS Choices

NHS Choices welcomes and encourages other websites to link to it. To offer users a better experience, consider using descriptive anchor text and linking directly to the relevant NHS Choices article page.

Source code guidance – for reasons of accessibility we recommend that you use titles when creating links. This will enable screenreaders to read out the link to the user. The title will also appear to users when hovering over the link with their mouse, giving additional information of what to expect from the page they are being directed to. Get help with accessibility.

Using the NHS Choices logo

If you wish to put a logo link to NHS Choices on your homepage, you can use one of the following graphics as a visual link to NHS Choices. Please do not reduce the size of these graphics as it will make the text unreadable.