Chairman of NICE admits that its judgments are hard to defend

Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, chairman of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), has admitted that its decisions are “questions of judgment, difficult to defend, difficult to teach.”

Speaking at a conference entitled “Medicine in the Millennium: confronting the issues,” jointly organised by the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Surgeons, and the Royal Society of Medicine, Professor Rawlins discussed how the institute will have to balance clinical and cost effectiveness. “The most important criteria is the clinical need of patients,” he said, “but this must be considered in relation to the severity of the disease or condition, …