Editorial policy
How a page on this site gets researched, written, checked, reviewed and corrected — and the things we will not do, whatever the incentive.
This policy was last reviewed . Next review due .
Who writes this site
AllHealth UK is written and edited by a non-clinical editorial team. Every page is compiled from published NHS and NICE guidance and links to the source it draws on. It is not written by doctors, it is not reviewed by a clinician, and it does not diagnose.
We want to be unambiguous about this, because a lot of health sites are not. Nobody on this team is a doctor, nurse, pharmacist or any other registered healthcare professional. No clinician signs off our pages before publication. Where you see a byline on this site it says "the AllHealth UK editorial team", because that is who wrote it.
What we can offer instead is provenance. We take published UK clinical guidance, restate it in plain English, and show you exactly where it came from so you can check it yourself. That is a real, useful job — and it is a different job from giving medical advice.
Where our information comes from
We compile from published UK guidance and from established UK charities. Linking to these organisations does not mean they endorse us, are affiliated with us, or have reviewed anything we publish.
NHS
Our default starting point for symptoms, conditions, treatments and when to seek help.
NICE
Used where we need the clinical detail behind the patient-facing NHS page.
UK charities and regulators
Used for condition-specific detail and for lived-experience guidance the NHS pages do not cover.
Every individual page carries its own sources list at the bottom, naming the specific pages it was compiled from and the date those links were last checked. If a page has no sources list, it should not be published — tell us and we will fix it.
How a page is produced
1. We start from the guidance, not from a search result
A page begins with the relevant NHS condition page and, where it exists, the NICE Clinical Knowledge Summary. We do not write from other health websites, and we do not rewrite competitors' articles.
2. We write the escalation advice first
Before anything else, we set out the signs that mean call 999, the signs that mean contact 111 or an urgent GP appointment, and the signs that mean book a routine GP appointment. These three tiers follow the NHS's own wording and structure, and they are never buried below self-care.
3. We write in plain English
Short sentences, no unexplained jargon, and the medical term given alongside the everyday one the first time it appears. We aim for a reading age of around 11 to 12, which is the level the NHS itself writes to.
4. A second editor checks the page against the source
Every claim is checked line by line against the guidance it came from. This is a factual accuracy check by a non-clinical editor. It is not a clinical review, and we do not describe it as one.
5. The sources are published on the page
Every page carries a visible sources list with working links and the date the links were checked, so you can verify anything we say against the original.
How often content is reviewed
We re-check every page against its cited sources every six months. The site-wide review currently stands at , with the next due by . Both dates appear on every page, so you can always see how fresh what you are reading is.
A review means one of three things happened: the source still says what we said it said and the page is unchanged; the source has changed and we updated the page; or the source has been withdrawn and we removed the page. We only move the review date when one of those has actually been done — not when the site is redeployed.
Outside the six-month cycle, we update a page straight away if NHS or NICE guidance changes materially, if a medicine is recalled or restricted, or if someone reports an error and we can confirm it.
Reporting an error
If something on this site is wrong, out of date, unclear or unsafe, please tell us. You do not need to be a clinician to report an error, and you do not need to prove it — pointing at the page is enough for us to go and check.
Email hello@allhealth.uk with the page address and what you think is wrong, or use the contact page.
- We aim to acknowledge every report within 5 working days.
- Where we can confirm a factual error, we aim to correct or remove the page within 10 working days of confirming it.
- Where a report suggests a genuine safety risk — for example missing or wrong "when to call 999" advice — we take the page down the same day and put it back only once it is fixed.
- Substantive corrections are noted on the page itself, with the date, rather than changed silently.
We cannot answer personal medical questions, and we will not try. If you need advice about your own symptoms, contact a GP, a pharmacist or NHS 111.
What we will never do
- Diagnose you, or suggest that a page has told you what is wrong with you.
- Recommend a prescription-only medicine, or advise you to start, stop or change a prescribed treatment.
- Claim that our content has been written or reviewed by a clinician when it has not.
- Publish content under an invented author, a fabricated credential or a stock-photo byline.
- State or imply that we are part of the NHS, endorsed by the NHS or NICE, or that our content is NHS-approved.
- Accept payment, free product or any other consideration in exchange for editorial coverage, a mention, a ranking or a link within our content.
- Publish a customer review, rating or testimonial we have not genuinely received from a real person.
- Let a commercial relationship change what a page says, or place a paid link above the free NHS route for the same problem.
What we will always do
- Name and link the guidance every page was compiled from.
- State clearly, on every page, that the content is not reviewed by a clinician.
- Show the free NHS route first, whether or not there is a paid alternative.
- Correct a factual error as soon as we can confirm it, and say on the page that it was corrected.
- Re-check every page against its sources at least every six months.
Related pages
- About AllHealth UK — who is behind the site.
- How we make money — the commercial position and the rules that go with it.
- Medical disclaimer — what this site is for, and what it is not for.