NICE’s public health role reduced
pharmafile | January 4, 2011 | News story | | NHS, NHS reforms, NICE, public health, quality standards
NICE’s public health remit has been slimmed down as part of the government’s reforms with the removal of six areas of guidance from its remit.
The Department of Health said it wants to ensure NICE’s work programme is “consistent with the broader approaches the government is taking to the reform of the health and public health systems in England”.
NICE’s capacity must be “focused on topics that add maximum value in addressing local needs”, it added.
NICE will no longer cover topics such as the prevention of road injuries in the under 15s or smoking cessation, but its work to date in these areas will continue to be available.
NICE has also been asked to put five topics on hold until the results of separate government initiatives are known.
These topics are contraceptive services for socially disadvantaged children, obesity prevention and personal, social, health and economic education focusing on sex and relationships and alcohol education.
The DH said it would also be reviewing several topics recently referred to NICE, but on which work has not yet started.
The move followed consultations on the government’s public health White Paper, Healthy Lives, Healthy People, that looks to ‘nudge’ people into being healthier.
Quality Standards
Meanwhile, NICE has been given a further 31 quality standards to develop within the new NHS outcomes framework in 2011/12.
The Institute has already been charged with producing 150 quality standards from 2010 to 2015, focusing on giving patients markers for the care they receive.
Its new topics concentrate on a variety of areas, including acute chest pain, colorectal cancer care, head injury and schizophrenia.
Quality standard topics are referred to NICE by ministers on the advice of the National Quality Board, a group of representatives from health and social care.
NICE said this work is central to supporting the “government’s vision for an NHS focused on delivering the best possible outcomes for patients”.
Ben Adams
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