Health A-Z
This section explains more than 800 conditions and treatments in words, pictures and videos. Top doctors and health professionals share their knowledge and advice while patients give an insight into coping with conditions and the treatments they have had.
You can also check symptoms for a wide range of conditions and get advice on the next steps.
In addition, our medicines guide provides comprehensive information about prescription and over-the-counter medicines, including known possible side effects, interactions and dosages.
Find services
Health services near you
This section has comprehensive directories of NHS services in England. Around 50 directories give details of everything from hospitals, GPs and dentists to care services, gyms and addiction support. All you have to do is select the type of service you are looking for and enter a postcode, location or organisation name.
Find out more about our directories.
If you have a national dataset that you would like to develop within our directories, register your interest though the NHS Choices helpdesk by contacting thechoicesteam@nhschoices.nhs.uk.
NHS Choices mobile
Find nearby health services by sending a text message. It’s easy, quick and completely free. Find out how NHS Choices mobile works.
Live Well
This is the healthy living section of the site, where you can find information and advice on staying healthy for people of all ages. There are more than 100 topics, from anger management to workplace health.
Browse Live Well and get tips on subjects including losing weight, getting fit for free, how to quit smoking or how to choose the right contraception for you.
Common health questions
Get quick answers to hundreds of common health questions on subjects such as dental health, food and diet, pregnancy, contraception, sexual health, travel health and much more.
Patient feedback and comments
Patient feedback
Rate and comment on NHS services, including hospitals, GPs, dentists and mental health trusts. You can give your views about the care that you, a friend or family member received. We will gradually introduce patient feedback for other services such as opticians and pharmacists.
Patient feedback helps you make informed decisions about health services and encourages healthcare providers to assess their services and make changes where necessary. We alert service providers when a comment has been left on their profile and they are given the opportunity to reply.
Comments
You can comment on most articles on the site. Unlike patient feedback, which only requires you to provide an email address, you will need to set up an NHS Choices account. If you don’t want to leave a comment, you can rate the content, from unhelpful to very helpful, using the star-rating facility. This will help us determine what content is useful and what needs to be improved.
NHS talk: forums and blogs
Join NHS Choices communities. We have around 14 blogs, covering topics from diabetes and pregnancy to caring and weight loss.
If you don’t want to write a blog, why not chat in one of our six forums? The carers community and Couch to 5k forums are particularly popular.
You can also get advice through the open clinic or online health clinic forums, where experts, doctors and other professionals will answer your questions.
It's easy to join the NHS Choices communities. Simply fill out the brief registration form. You can comment on existing blog posts by registering for an NHS Choices account.
Get your own account
Creating an account will let you tailor NHS Choices content to your interests, save information such as details of your GP and dentist, index pages that interest you and receive emails on your chosen topics and health goals.
Register for an NHS Choices account now.
Information Prescription Service (IPS)
Information prescriptions give people with long-term conditions or care needs information to help them manage their health more effectively and live more independently. They contain information and links to further sources of advice and support, such as how to find local support groups.
An information prescription is a little like a medicines prescription. While a medicines prescription tells you what drugs to take for your condition, an information prescription gives you knowledge to help you cope with your condition on a daily basis. Create an information prescription.
Behind the Headlines
The award-winning Behind the Headlines service provides an unbiased and evidence-based daily analysis of the science behind health stories that make the news. It aims to respond to stories the day they appear in the media.
Catch up on over 2,000 appraisals of health news stories, which also feature on websites such as the Nursing Times, NetDoctor, Patient UK and the NHS Evidence online library.
The service is recommended by the BBC College of Journalism as an example of clear, accurate, evidence-based reporting.
Carers Direct
Carers Direct helps carers get the support they need. It offers information about financial help as well as advice on getting a break from caring, going to work and much more.
To get you started, why not try our interactive carer self-assessment quiz? By answering just six questions, you'll find out what support you may be entitled to.
The NHS in England
Get a wealth of information about the health service in England, from its history to how it's organised. Find out about your choices in the NHS, the different NHS services available in England, how to get help with health costs and how to ensure you’re covered for healthcare abroad.
Videos
You can watch videos across the site, either on article pages or in the videos section, on a range of topics from how to have a healthy sex life to cutting down on salt.
At the end of a video, or when you click the menu button on the player, you will see links to more videos or related topics.
Tools
You can find a range of different interactive tools, including widgets, slideshows, quizzes, symptom checkers, mobile apps and video walls, across the site or in our tools library.
Catering for a wide range of health needs, the tools provide quick answers and information, as well as links to more detailed areas of the website. The most popular tool on NHS Choices is our BMI calculator, which can be used to measure the body mass index of anyone over the age of two.
