The NHS should not use the fact that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has not yet provided guidance on a treatment to refuse that treatment, Jane Kennedy, minister for quality and patient safety, has said. She was speaking to delegates at a NICE conference in Birmingham last week.

“NICE does not exist to ‘kitemark’ all the drugs which are licensed for use in the UK. Therefore, the NHS will have to continue to make informed decisions about the use of these drugs,” she said.

In a challenge from the floor, Iain Chalmers, founder of the Cochrane Library, asked why …