FYI - Info on paper by Alan Maynard, Karen Bloor and Nick Freemantle in this weeks BMJ
BW
David McDaid
LSE Health & Social Care
NICE IS CREATING INFLATIONARY PRESSURE ON THE NHS
(National Institute for Clinical Excellence and its value judgements)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/329/7459/224
(Challenges for the National Institute for Clinical Excellence)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/329/7459/227
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) is creating
inflationary pressure that the NHS cannot afford, argue researchers in this
week's BMJ.
Responding to an article on the rationale behind NICE decisions, Professor
Alan Maynard and colleagues say that giving NICE a real budget would
encourage it to examine the effect of its decisions on the whole NHS.
NICE exists to give health professionals advice on providing their NHS
patients with the highest clinical standards of care. Its approach to
economic evaluation is based on affordability, efficiency and equity, yet
the authors suggest that this approach has been self serving and
inflationary.
They believe that NICE's role is too peripheral to the NHS. Instead, NICE
should inform NHS decision making and provide better information on the
equity implications of new and existing technologies. It should also focus
not only on service enhancement but also on withdrawal of existing
ineffective or inefficient therapies.
Give NICE a real budget, they say. This would force it to examine the cost
effectiveness of existing treatments as well as new ones and to prioritise
and fund the excessive demands they are making on local NHS budgets.
The NHS cannot afford NICE generosity, even with increased NHS funding.
Over the next few years the current substantial growth in NHS expenditure
is likely to fade, and NICE will have to make hard choices in a much more
difficult economic climate, they conclude.
Contacts:
Professor Alan Maynard, Department of Health Sciences, University of York,
UK
Email: [log in to unmask]
or
Dr Karen Bloor, Senior Research Fellow
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