8

The fundamental objective is to improve standards of patient care, and to reduce inequities in access to innovative treatment, by establishing a process which will

 
i

identify those new treatments and products which are likely to have a significant impact on the NHS, or which for other reasons would benefit from the issue of national guidance at an early stage

 
ii

enable evidence of clinical and cost effectiveness to be brought together to inform a judgement on the value of the treatment relative to alternative uses of resources in the NHS

 
iii

result in the issue of guidance on whether the treatment can be recommended for routine use in the NHS (and if so under what conditions or for which groups of patients) together with a summary of the evidence on which the recommendation is based

 
iv

avoid any significant delays to those sponsoring the innovation either in meeting any national or international regulatory requirements or in bringing the innovation to market in the UK.

   
  NICE will offer clinicians more support than they have had before in making complex decisions about individual patient care. Of course there will be circumstances in which clinicians need to modify general guidance to fit the circumstances of individual patients. Overall, however, we expect that the guidance from NICE will lead to greater equity of access to effective treatments across the NHS, and we will be following up through clinical governance arrangements to ensure that variations in care for patients which cannot be justified by genuine local differences are not allowed to persist.
   
9 The appraisal process will have no effect on licensing requirements (for medicines) or safety requirements (for medical devices) and will be formally independent of the processes operated in each case by the competent authorities.