If you have gone to open MicroGuide for your hospital's antibiotic guidance and found it missing or redirected, you are not imagining it. Many NHS Trusts and Health Boards are retiring the MicroGuide app and moving their antimicrobial guidelines onto the Eolas Medical platform, in some places with hard cutover dates after which MicroGuide simply stops working. Here is what is changing, how to find your guidance now, why your local antibiotic policy still overrides national guidance, and where a national reference and reasoning layer fits alongside it.
In brief: MicroGuide content, including hospital antimicrobial guidelines, is migrating to the Eolas Medical platform. Doctors need to download the Eolas app, find their Trust or Health Board's "Space", and use that for local antibiotic policy. Local antimicrobial guidance still overrides national guidance for empirical treatment, so use Eolas for the local rule, and a national reference such as NICE or NICE CKS, plus clinical reasoning, for the wider context.
Key takeaways
- Many Trusts are moving antimicrobial guidelines from the MicroGuide app to the Eolas Medical platform.
- Some organisations have set cutover dates after which the MicroGuide app no longer works.
- The migration is designed to preserve your content, structure and interface, so the guidance itself is unchanged.
- Local antibiotic policy overrides national guidance for empirical treatment, which is why it exists.
- You still need a national reference and reasoning layer for the "why" behind the local rule.
What MicroGuide was, and what is changing
MicroGuide has for years been the app many UK hospitals used to deliver local antimicrobial guidelines at the bedside: concise, locally authored antibiotic policy, searchable on a phone. What is changing is the platform, not the principle. MicroGuide content is being migrated to Eolas Medical, a knowledge-management platform used across hundreds of healthcare organisations, and Trusts are notifying staff that their antimicrobial guidance now lives in Eolas. The migration is designed to be seamless, with content automatically transferred, the same structure retained, and the interface kept familiar, so your Trust's guidance should look and read much as it did. Eolas adds features around it, including access to NICE guidelines, integration with BNF and BNFC, drug monographs for subscribing Trusts, version control, and usage analytics for the organisation.
What to do now
The practical steps are simple. Download the Eolas Medical app from the App Store or Google Play, create an account, and search for your Trust, Health Board or hospital to add its "Space", which holds your local guidance. Most NHS email domains are pre-validated for instant access, though some organisations require admin approval. If your Trust has announced a cutover date, act before it, because after that point the old MicroGuide app will no longer open your guidelines. And note the golden rule of local guidance: when prescribing empirically, use your own organisation's Space, not another Trust's, because antibiotic policy is local.
Why local antibiotic policy overrides national guidance
This is the part that matters clinically, and it is not a technicality. Local antimicrobial guidelines are deliberately tailored to local resistance patterns, formulary, and stewardship priorities, and they sometimes depart from national guidance on purpose. For example, some Trusts specifically restrict cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones and co-amoxiclav to reduce Clostridioides difficile and resistant organisms, so their empirical choices differ from what a national summary might suggest. That is why, for empirical antimicrobial treatment, your hospital's own policy takes precedence, and it is exactly the guidance Eolas now delivers. Following the local rule is the safe default; departing from it needs a clear clinical reason and usually a discussion with microbiology.
Why you still need a national reference and reasoning layer
Local guidance tells you what to prescribe; it does not always tell you why, or cover the wider clinical picture. When you need to reason around a contraindication, adjust for renal impairment, weigh an allergy, recognise red flags, or understand the evidence behind a choice, you need a national reference and clinical reasoning, not just the local antibiotic table. This is where the two layers complement each other: Eolas answers "what does my hospital say", while a tool grounded in national guidance answers "what does the evidence say, and how do I reason through this patient". Both matter, and confusing one for the other is where errors creep in.
Where iatroX fits
iatroX sits in that national and reasoning layer, deliberately complementary to a local platform like Eolas. Ask iatroX answers clinical questions grounded in NICE, CKS, SIGN and the SmPC, with the source attached, so after you have checked the local antibiotic policy in Eolas, you can use iatroX to understand the reasoning, check monitoring and interactions, work through the differential, and turn a prescribing question into retained learning. It is a UKCA-marked, MHRA-registered clinical tool, free to use, and it does not try to replace your Trust's local policy, which always governs empirical choice. Try it at Ask iatroX, and for more on how hospital knowledge platforms fit the wider picture, see Eolas Medical and the rise of hospital knowledge platforms.
Frequently asked questions
Why has MicroGuide stopped working? Many Trusts are migrating their guidelines from the MicroGuide app to the Eolas Medical platform, and some have set cutover dates after which the old MicroGuide app no longer opens. Download the Eolas app and add your organisation's Space to find your guidance.
Where are my hospital's antibiotic guidelines now? On the Eolas Medical platform, within your Trust or Health Board's "Space". Download the Eolas app, create an account, search for your organisation, and add its Space. Use your own organisation's guidance for empirical prescribing, not another Trust's.
Has the guidance itself changed? Usually not. The migration is designed to preserve content, structure and appearance, so your local guidance should read much as it did on MicroGuide. Always check for any local update notices, as guidelines are revised over time.
Do local antibiotic guidelines override NICE? For empirical treatment, yes. Local antimicrobial policy is tailored to local resistance and stewardship and takes precedence over national guidance, which is why your Trust maintains it. Departing from it needs a clear clinical reason and usually microbiology input.
What should I use alongside Eolas? A national reference and reasoning layer for the wider context: NICE and NICE CKS for national guidance, and a tool like Ask iatroX for grounded answers, reasoning around contraindications and monitoring, and learning. Eolas gives the local rule; these give the evidence and the reasoning.