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Health and Social Services Glossary of Acronyms

This glossary was devised in Manchester, and has a regional bias, but jargon in the rest of the UK is not very different, and I have tried to include Scottish, Irish, and Welsh terms. I am only trying to cover acronyms. Helpful people who suggest I should include all sorts of other terms devised to confuse, mystify or impress the lay reader of official documents have clearly not comprehended the enormity of the problem. I must thank Mervyn Monks of South Gloucestershire LINk who has contributed a substantial collection of new acronyms, just as I was beginning to think I would never get round to bringing this up to date. We now have a definite bias towards the West.

Terms included are mostly those discussed by managers and politicians (usually because they cost money) or which you may find included in medical notes. Some doctors charge a fee for explaining your notes to you, but I hope this glossary will help you understand for free. If you are looking for information about a medical condition you might like to try UK Self Help, which has a very good list of helpful organisations, mostly run by people by people with personal experience of the condition. They are also very helpful in understanding exactly what people mean when they use unfamiliar words

It would be better if people spell out exactly what they mean, at least the first time round, but they don't, so I hope this list will help. If you are on the receiving end of documents supposedly produced for the public or for users of services please complain. if they are incomprehensible managers can get help if they can't manage to communicate with ordinary mortals.

Some of the explanations in the glossary are a bit quick and dirty, so may give an inaccurate picture, particularly of complex organisations. Some are doctors slang or offensive - or both - but as you may find them in your notes I make no apology for including them. And a few are internet terms, but they get everywhere these days

You can find other glossaries on the Internet. This one is designed for lay people interested in the British National Health Service and welfare state. Most of the others are designed for professionals. Acronyms And Initialisms For Health Information Resources compiled by Marie-Lise Shams is the most impressive multilingual list. Acronym Corner at Nottingham University, covers medical education acronyms. Medical Online Glossaries & Resources has links to hundreds of glossaries in ten different European languages. MediLexicon has a searchable database of 200,000 medical entries. Allglossary has 1702 glossaries listed in 242 Categories, and Acronym Finder claims to have 186,000 entries in its database. So this is pretty modest by comparison. For clinical stuff BioMedSearch seems a pretty comprehensive database.

Symbols

# Fracture

+ve Positive

-ve Negative

3Ns Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland Mental Health NHS Trust

A

A&A Advice and Advocacy

A&D Anxiety and Depression

A&E Accident and Emergency Department Casualty - as seen on TV, but usually less exciting

A & S Avon and Somerset

A&RC Audit and Risk Committee

A & SLRF Avon & Somerset Local Resilience Forum

A/O Alert and Oriented

A4A Awards for All

AA Attendance Allowance Benefit for people over 65 who need personal care

or Accountancy Age

or Alcoholics Anonymous

or Advanced Access

AAA Annual Accountability Agreement

or Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

AAC Advisory Appointments Committee

or Avon Audit Consortium

or Advisory Appointments Committee

AAGBI Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland

AAMS Association of Air Medical Services (US)

AAO American Academy of Opthalmology

AAOS American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons

AAOx3 Awake, Alert, Oriented x 3 [person/place/time]

AAP Area Action Plan

AARP Ambulance Analogue Radio Project

AAT Association of Accounting Technicians

AAU Acute Assessment Unit

AB Antibiotic

ABC Activity-Based Costing

or Acceptable Behaviour Contract

or Acute balance of care

or Appointment Business Case

ABG Arterial Blood Gases

ABHI Association of British Healthcare Industries

ABI Area-Based Initiative or

Association of British Insurers

ABM Activity-Based Management

ABN Association of British Neurologists

ABPI Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry

ABS Adult Basic Skills

a c ante cibos - before food

AC AnteCubital vein or fossa (IV)

or Anterior Cephalic vein

or Audit Commission

ACA Area Cost Adjustment (part of the SSA)

or Auxiliary Care Assistant

or Ambulance Care Assistant

ACAC Area Clinical Audit Committee

ACAD Ambulatory Care and Diagnostic Centre

ACAS Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service

ACBS Advisory Committee on Borderline Substances

ACC Adjusted Credit Ceiling (part of capital control framework)

or Adult Community Care

or Ambulatory Care Conditions

or Age Concern Cymru

ACCA Association of Chartered Certified Accountants

ACCE Association of County Chief Executives

ACCEA Advisory Committee on Clinical Excellence Awards

ACD Active Compression-Decompression (CPR)

ACDA Advisory Committee on Distinction Awards (obs)

ACDF Active Communities Development Fund

ACDC Ambulatory Care and Diagnostic Centre

ACDM - Association of Clinical Data Managers

ACDP Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens

ACE Angiotensin Converting Enzyme is a sort of hormone in the kidney which controls the body's fluid/salt balance and has a major role in maintaining blood pressure

or Arts Council of England

ACEO Association of Chief Education Officers

ACEVO Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations

ACF Association of Charitable Foundations

ACG Annual Capital Guideline (part of Local Government capital control framework)

or Annual Carers Grant

ACHCEW Association of Community Health Councils for England and Wales (obsolete)

ACHMS Asian Community Mental Health Services

ACIE Association of Charity Independent Examiners

ACIG Academy of Medical Royal Colleges Information Group

ACL Aggregate Credit Limit (part of capital control framework)

ACLS Advanced Coronary Life Support

ACM Assessment and Care Management - Social Services community care purchaser division

or Additional Case Manager

ACME Advisory Committee on Medical Establishment (Scotland)

or Alliance for Continuing Medical Education

ACMHS Asian Community Mental Health Services

ACMT Advisory Committee on Medical Training

ACNI Age Concern Northern Ireland

AcoP Accounting Code of Practice

ACORN A Classification Of Residential Neighbourhoods (used in SSA)

ACP American College of Physicians

or Advanced Care Planning

ACPC Area Child Protection Committee

ACR Albumin Creatinine Ratio

ACPO Association of Chief Police Officers

ACRA Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation (obs)

ACRE Action with Communities in Rural England

ACS Association of Charity Shops

or Acute Coronary Syndrome

or Ambulance Car Service

or Age Concern Scotland

ACSES Association of Council Secretaries & Solicitors

ACT Assertive Community Treatment

or Advice & Complaints Team

ACTAF Association of Community Trusts and Foundations Now Community Foundation Network

ACTH Adenocorticotrophic hormone

ACTS Agency for Community Team Support

ACTR Additional Cost of Teaching and Research (in Scotland)

ACU Active Community Unit (part of the Home Office)

ACWCN Avon, Glos, Wilts Cardiac Network

ADA Americans with Disabilities Act

ADASS Association of Directors of Adult Social Services

ADC Automatic Data Capture

or Avon Decontamination Collaborative

ADCU Anti-Drugs Co-ordination Unit

ADD Attention Deficit Disorder

ADG Ambulatory Development Group

ADH Additional Duty Hours

or antidiurectic hormone

ADHD Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

ADI Acceptable Daily Intake

ADL Activities of daily living - measures of independence in being able to perform personal care and other basic daily tasks; for example eating, washing, dressing, getting in and out of bed, climbing stairs etc

ADMS Assistant Director of Medical Services

ADNS Assistant Director of Nursing Services

ADOC Avon Director On Call

ADP Automatic Data Processing

or adenosine 5' pyrophosphate

ADPH Association of Directors of Public Health

ADQ Average Daily Quantity Average amount of a medication prescribed for an adult in England

ADR adverse drug reaction

ADS Attribution Data Set - A list of patients on GP lists in March 1998 which matches patients by age and sex to practices and to census enumeration districts (ED)

ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line

ADSS Association of Directors of Social Services - Social Services’ Directors Trades Union

ADSU Automatic Distress Signal Unit

AE air entry - part of the examination of the chest

AEA Action on Elder Abuse

AED Automatic External Defibrillator

AEF Aggregate External Finance

AEGIS Aid to the Elderly in Government Institutions

AELS Advanced Endocrinological Life Support

AEN Additional Educational Needs (part of SSA)

AEPP Avonwide Emergency Preparedness Policy

AF Atrial Fibrillation

or Area Forum

AFAIAA As Far As I Am Aware

AFB acid-fast bacillus

AFC Agenda for Change

A f ME Action for ME

AFOM Associate of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine

AFPP Association for Perioperative Practice

AFR Annual Financial Return

or Annual Frequency Rate

AFRA Annual Fire Risk Assessment

AFRS Avon Fire & Rescue Service

AfS Action for Sustainability

AFWG Allocation Formula Working Group (part of Home Office)

AGC Audit & Governance Committee

AGM Annual General Meeting

or Assistant General Manager

AGMA Association of Greater Manchester Authorities

AGMETS Advisory Group on Medical and Dental Education, Training and Staffing

AGREE Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation in Europe

AGUM Association for Genitourinary Medicine

AGW Avon Gloucestershire & Wiltshire

AGWS Avon, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire & Somerset

AHA Associate of the Institute of Hospital Administrators

or Area Health Authority (defunct)

AHC Avon Health Committee

or Annual Health Check

or Area Housing Committee

or After Housing Costs

AHCPA Association of Health Centre and Practice Administrators

AHERC Avon Health Executive Resilience Group

AHHRM Association of Healthcare Human Resource Management Personnel Directors Union

AHP Allied health professional

AHRQ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

AHS Acute Hospital Services

or Adult Hearing-Aid Services

AICD Automatic Internal Cardiac Defibrillator

AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

AIF Area investment frameworks

AIM Advanced Informatics in Medicine

or Association of Independent Multifunds (obsolete)

AIMS Association for Improvements in Maternity Services

AIMTC Avon Information & Management Technology Centre

AIOPI - Association of Information Officers in the Pharmaceutical Industry now the Pharmaceutical Information and Pharmacovigilance Association (PIPA)

AIQ Available In Quarters

aka Also Known As

ALA Association of Local Authorities Now part of the LGA

ALAC Artificial Limb and Appliance Centre Now known as the DSC

ALARM Association of Local Authority Risk Managers

ALATS Association of Local Authority Treasurer's Societies

ALC Antiviral Logistics Cell

ALD Adult with Learning Difficulties

ALE Auditors Local Evaluation

ALERT Acute Life threatening Events - Recognition & Treatment

ALF Activity-Led Funding

ALG Association of London Government

ALI Adult Learning Inspectorate (abolished April 2007)

ALM Action Learning for Managers

ALMO Arms Length Management Organisation

ALPHA Access to Learning for the Public Health Agenda

alos Average Length of Stay

ALPHA Access to Learning for the Public Health

ALS Advanced Life Support

ALSOB Alcohol Like Substance On Breath

ALT /SGPT liver function tests

ALW Adult Learners' Week

AMA American Medical Association

or Against Medical Advice

AMBEX Ambulance Exhibition

AMD Age related Macular degeneration

AME Annual Managed Expenditure

AMEE Association for Medical Education in Europe

AMI Acute Myocardial Infarction

AMIA American Medical Informatics Association

AMIMR Acute Myocardial Infarction Mortality Rate

AMP Asset Management Plan

AMPDS Advance Medical Priority Despatch System

AMPS Assessment of Motor Skills

AMQ Average Monthly Quantities The assumed maintenance dose per month for an adult of a drug

AMRA Asset Management Revenue Account

AMRC Association of Medical Research Charities

or Academy of Medical Royal Colleges

AMS Army Medical Services

AMSPAR Association of Medical Secretaries, Practice Administrators and Receptionists

AMT Aspects & Milestones Trust

ANC Ante Natal Clinic

ANH Artificial Nutrition and Hydration

ANI Automatic Number Identification (telephony)

ANSI American National Standards Institute

ANTT Aseptic non-touch technique

AOB Alcohol On Breath

AOC Adult Opportunity Centre

or Avon Orthopaedic Centre

AODP Association of Operating Department Practitioners formerly BAODA British Association of Operating Department Assistants

AOMRC Academy of Medical Royal Colleges

AONB Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

AOP Association of Optometrists

AOS Area of Search

AOT Assertive Outreach Team

AP Alternative Pathways

APA Association of Police Authorities

or Annual Performance Assessment

APB Auditing Practices Board

APC Area Prescribing Committee

or Antigen-presenting Cell

or Adult Protection Committee

APCRC Avon Primary Care Research Collaborative

APCSA Avon Primary Care Support Agency

APD Advanced Professional Development

APH Aged Persons Home aka EPH

or Association of Public Health - now turned into UKPHA

APHA American Public Health Association

APHO Association of Public Health Observatories

APHR Annual Public Health Report

APLS Advanced Paediatric Life Support

APM Arbitrage Pricing Model

APMS Alternative Primary Medical Services

or Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey

APPG All Party Parliamentary Group

APROP Action for the Proper Regulation of Private Hospitals

APS Annual Population Survey

APSE Association for Public Service Excellence

APT&C Administrative, Professional, Technical & Clerical - former grading of local government staff

AQH Association for Quality in Healthcare

AQS Air Quality Strategy

AR analytical standard of reagent purity

ARB Angiotensin Receptor Blocker

ARE Advocacy Resource Exchange

ARIF Aggressive Research Intelligence Facility

ARM Association of Radical Midwives

or artificial rupture of the membranes

ARSH Association of Royal Society of Health

ARVAC Association for Research in the Voluntary and Community Sector

as Auricle Sinistrus (Left Ear)

ASA Advertising Standards Authority or

Ambulance Service Association

ASAP As Soon As Possible

ASB Anti-Social Behaviour

ASBAH Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus

ASBO Anti-Social Behaviour Order

ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange - Plain text

ASD Autistic Spectrum Disorder

ASEC Associate Specialist Education Committee

ASH Action on Smoking and Health

ASIM American Society of Internal Medicine

ASIT Association of Surgeons in Training

ASME Association for the Study of Medical Education

ASP Active Server Protocol

ASPFA Asylum Seekers and People From Abroad - a Social Services team who pay out cash to people who cannot get Social Security Benefits

ASR Acute Services Review

ASSIST Association for Information Management and Technology Staff in the NHS

ASTRO-PU Age Sex Temporary Resident Originated Prescribing Unit

ASU Ambulance Support Unit

ASW Approved Social Worker - A social worker approved to carry out Sections under the Mental Health Act

ASWCS Avon Somerset and Wiltshire Cancer Services

ATC Adult Training Centre (obs)

ATfJ Action Teams for Jobs

ATLS Advanced Trauma Life Support

ATMD Association of Trust Medical Directors

ATOC Association of Train Operating Companies

ATP adenosine 5' triphosphate

ATTRACT - Ask TRiP to Rapidly Alleviate Confused Thoughts

Atts Attendances

ATU Alcohol Treatment Unit

au Right Ear

AUDGP Association of University Departments of General Practice (obs)

AUKUH Association of UK University Hospitals

AVG Ambulatory Visit Group

AVMA Action Against of Medical Accidents

AWP Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership

AWS Avon Wiltshire & Somerset

AZT Azidothymidine (or zidovudine)

B

B2B Business to Business

BA Benefits Agency (obs)

or Bachelor of Arts

or Block Allocation

BAAF British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering

BACCH British Association for Community Child Health

BACR British Association of Cardiac Rehabilitation

BACS British Association for Chemical Specialities

or Blood Alcohol Content

BACTS British Association of Clinical Terminology

BACUP British Association of Cancer United Patients

BAEM British Association for Accident and Emergency Medicine

BAMM British Association of Medical Managers

BAMS Benefit Agency Medical Service (obs)

BAN British Approved Name

BAO British Association of Otolaryngologists

BAOT British Association of Occupational Therapists

BAP British Association for Psychopharmacology

BAPRAS British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons

BAPS British Association of Paediatric Surgeons

or British Association of Plastic Surgeons (now BAPRAS)

BAPT British Association of Physical Training

BARQA British Association of Research Quality

BAS Bristol Adult Services

or Bond Air Services

BASH British Association for the Study of Headache

BASICS British Association of Immediate Care

BASRaT British Association of Sports Rehabilitators and Trainers

BASSAC British Association of Settlements and Social Action Centres

BASW British Association of Social Workers

BAUS British Association of Urological Surgeons

BB Beta Blocker

BBH Blackberry Hill Hospital

BBP Blood-Borne Pathogen

BBS Bulletin Board System

BBV Blood borne virus

BC Block Contracting

or Borough Council

BCA Basic Credit Approval (part of capital control framework)

BCCCF Black Community Care Consultative Forum

BCD Black and Culturally Diverse

BCF Boundary Change Factor (part of SSA)

BCG Bacille Calmette-Guerin Vaccination for TB Named after the scientists who developed the weakened strain of TB

or ballistocardiogram

BCHS Better Care Higher Standards

BCI Business Continuity Institute

BCIS British Cardiac Intervention Society

BCM Business Community Management

BCODP British Council of Disabled People

BCRC British Cave Rescue Council

BCRM Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine

BCS British Computer Society

or British Cardiovascular Society

BCU Basic Command Unit (police)

BD Twice Daily - of medication

or BenzoDiazepine

BDA British Dental Association

or British Diabetic Association now called Diabetes UK

or British Dietetic Association

or British Dyslexia Association

or Black Development Agency

BDD body dysmorphic disorder

BDH British Drug Houses (no longer trading)

BDI Barriers Domain Indicators

BDS Bachelor of Dental Surgery

BEAM Biomedical Equipment Assessment and Management

BEHAF British Ethnic Health Awareness Foundation

BEMS Bath Emergency Medical Service

BESS Benchill Ecumenical Service Scheme - three local churches which work together

BEST Behaviour + Education Support Teams

BF Bio Feedback

BGH Bristol General Hospital

BGL Blood Glucose Level

BGOP Better Government for Older People (Cabinet Office/ LGA Initiative to give more people a say and encourage them to make a greater contribution to their communities (allegedly)

BGS British Geriatrics Society for Health in Old Age

BGT Blood Glucose Test

BHAF Black HIV and AIDS Forum

BHAPS Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Ambulance and Paramedic Service

BHF British Heart Foundation

BHI Bristol Heart Institute

BHOC Bristol Haematology & Oncology Centre

BHPS British Household Panel Survey

BHS British Hypertension Society

BHSP Bristol Health Services Plan

BIBA British Insurance Brokers Association

BIBRA British Industrial Biological Association

bid bis in die - twice daily

BIDS Bath Information and Data Services

BIIG Business Information In Government

BILD British Institute of Learning Disabilities

BIQ Back in Quarters

BIR British Institute of Radiology

BIRA British Institute of Regulatory Affairs

BiTC Business in the Community

BIVDA British in Vitro Diagnostics Association

BLEVE Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapour Explosion

BLP Branch Labour Party - normally covering one ward

BLROA British Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Association

BLS Basic Life Support

BMA British Medical Association - the main doctors' Trade Union

BMAG Burnage Multi-Agency Group

BMC Blackhorse Medical Centre

BMCA Barlow Moor Community Association

BME Black and Minority Ethnic

BMI Body Mass Index (kg/m2)

BMIS British Medical Informatics Society

BMJ British Medical Journal - published by the BMA weekly

BMR Basal metabolic rate

BNF British National Formulary Quarterly publication containing details of prescribed drugs

BNI British Nursing Index

BNSSG Bristol, North Somerset & South Gloucestershire

BOA British Orthopaedic Association

BOC Bristol Oncology Centre

BOFP Bristol Older Peoples Forum

BOGOF Buy One Get One Free

BOMSS British Obesity & Metabolic Surgery Society

BOPCAS British Official Publications Current Awareness Service

BOPP Bristol Older Peoples Partnership

BOS British Orthodontic Society

BP Blood pressure

or British Pharmacopoeia

or Boiling point

BPA British Paediatric Association (obs)

or British Paramedic Association

BPAS British Pregnancy Advisory Service

BPC British Pharmaceutical Codex

BPD Borderline Personality Disorder

BPE Benign Prostate Enlargement

BPG Best Practice Guidelines

BPH Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Enlargement of the prostate gland

BPMF British Postgraduate Medical Federation

BPPC Better Payment Practice Code

BPPV benign paroxysmal positional vertigo

BPR Business Process Re-engineering

BPS British Pharmacological Society

BPSU British Paediatric Surveillance Unit

BPTS Back Pain Triage Service

BQS Better Quality Services

BR Budget Requirement

BrAPP British Association of Pharmaceutical Physicians

BREEAM Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method

BREHP Bristol Racial Equality in Health Partnership

BRHC Bristol Royal Hospital for Children

BRI Bristol Royal Infirmary

BRT Big Red Trucks

BSA Basic Skills Agency

BSAD British Sports Association for the Disabled

BSc Bachelor of Science

BSCC British Society for Clinical Cytology

BSE Bovine Spongiform Encephalopthy Mad Cow Disease Causes a new form of CJD which has killed 156 people and caused HMG to spend many millions of pounds

or Breast Self Examination

BSEC Basic Surgical Education Committee

BSH British Society for Haematology

BSI British Standards Institution

or British Society for Immunology

BSL British Sign Language

BSM Behavioural Self-Management

BSPED British Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes

BSR British Society of Rheumatology

BST Basic Surgical Training

or Basic Specialist Training

BSVP Better Services for Vulnerable People; NHS and SSDs enjoined to be joined up in respect of 'priority' groups who are supposed to be benefiting from Community Care

BTCV British Trust for Conservation Volunteers

BTEG Black Training and Enterprise Group

BTP British Transport Police

BTS Blood Transfusion Service

or British Thoracic Society

or Buddy Travel Scheme

BTW By The Way

BUA Bristol Urology Associates

BUGAUP Billboard Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions

BUI Bristol Urological Institute

BUNDY But Unfortunately Not Dead Yet

BUPA British United Provident Association