Why is the press so nasty to NICE?

doi:10.1136/bmj.a1906

Published 1 October 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1906
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1906

Observations

Medicine and the Media

Why is the press so nasty to NICE?

Nigel Hawkes, freelance journalist and consultant and former health editor of the Times

nigel.hawkes1@btinternet.com

The British press has declared open season on NICE, reportsNigel Hawkes

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Embattled and almost friendless, the government body chargedwith assessing the cost effectiveness of drugs is enduring atorrid spell. The National Institute for Health and ClinicalExcellence (NICE) has always been controversial, but the torrentsof abuse thrown at it in the past two months have set new standards,in volume and in vitriol.

Andrew Dillon, NICE’s chief executive, has been called"Dr Death" and the organisation he runs described as "a bunchof fat cat executives who sit in their plush office playingGod." Callous, nasty, terrible, barbaric, and with "a long anddevastating history of denying care to those who need it most,"NICE has run the gamut of Roget’s Thesaurus as its criticscompete for the most damning adjectives the English languagecan provide. The British national press has run more than 200stories about NICE since the beginning of August, all but ahandful of . . . [Full text of this article]

Add to CiteULike CiteULike Add to Complore Complore Add to Connotea Connotea Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us Add to Digg Digg Add to Reddit Reddit Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon Add to Technorati Technorati What's this?

Relevant Article

A plea for broader perspectives on health: Fiona Godlee
BMJ 2008 337: a1923. [Extract] [Full Text]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Another concern about NICE: Philip JR Taylor, et al.
bmj.com, 4 Oct 2008 [Full text]
conflict of interest in NICE: Nicholas Sarkies
bmj.com, 4 Oct 2008 [Full text]
NICE's blunders do not only affect the UK: Mauricio Lema
bmj.com, 5 Oct 2008 [Full text]
Misspellings: Mauricio Lema
bmj.com, 6 Oct 2008 [Full text]
Journalist fingers physicians for nasty NICE attacks: Nigel Dudley
bmj.com, 13 Oct 2008 [Full text]
Why is the press so nice to the drug industry?: Paula J Whittaker
bmj.com, 7 Oct 2008 [Full text]
NICE can not always be nice!: Umesh Prabhu, et al.
bmj.com, 7 Oct 2008 [Full text]
NICE guidelines work in practice: Manda Holmshaw, et al.
bmj.com, 16 Oct 2008 [Full text]