The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) published its document Standards for Gynaecology in 2008 and is being used widely by commissioners, providers and policy makers. It sets out the principles of quality assured gynaecological services. The recommendations cover issues such as gynaecological services, early pregnancy loss, ectopic pregnancy, recurrent miscarriage, infertility, urogynaecology, colposcopy, termination of pregnancy and laparoscopic surgery. All emotional and psychological counselling requirements should be provided within the early pregnancy assessment unit. All units should audit patient choice and uptake rates for medical, surgical and conservative management of miscarriage, together with complications and failure rates. Clear information on choice of anonymised testing, treatment and contact tracing through genitourinary medicine should be available. Counselling and advice on sterilisation procedures (both vasectomy and tubal occlusion) should be provided in the context of services providing a full range of information about and access to long-term reversible methods of contraception.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG)'s clinical standards for urogynaecology have been jointly developed with the British Society of Urogynaecology (BSUG) to provide a framework that should ensure best and evidence-based practice. The initial assessment and management of women with urinary incontinence is detailed in the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guidelines and these are equally applicable to all pelvic floor disorders, including prolapse, anal and faecal incontinence, with a specific NICE guideline being available for the latter. Subspecialty training allows the development of more clinical, surgical, analytical and research skills and experience in all aspects of urogynaecology. Patient-reported outcomes are strongly recommended for assessing the success of treatments. Data can be collected confidentially through the BSUG surgical audit database for urinary incontinence and prolapse, which provides validated instruments to assess outcome.