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BMJ 2008;336:56-57 (12 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.39454.496748.80
Out goes the arbitrary funding threshold: in come NICE "directives"
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
On Wednesday 9 January 2008, the House of Commons health select committee published the report of its second inquiry into the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).1 The committees first inquiry into NICE was published six years ago,2 just three years after the institutes launch. Much has happened since the initial inquiry. The institute is now well established and is a core policy driver within the National Health Service in England and Wales (its remit does not cover Scotland), and we know much more about how it operates. Moreover, the working environment of the institute has changed with, for instance, the publication of the Cooksey report on funding for health research in the United Kingdom,3 the introduction of legislation making NICE technology appraisals essentially compulsory,4 the involvement of the courts in a legal challenge to NICE,5 and most recently the Office of Fair Tradings critical review of how
Joe Collier, emeritus professor in medicines policy
1 St Georges Hospital, University of London, SW17 0RE
jcollier@sgul.ac.uk
Israeli students are refusing to perform intimate examinations on anaesthetised women without their informed consent.