Health boss says patients should sue health trust for best drugs

Professor Rawlins, the chairman of the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence, said the economic pressure on trusts meant that “completely illegal” decisions were being made to limit the use of expensive drugs.
He told the Financial Times: “I just wish a patient organisation would take a Trust to court for failing to comply.”
Nice has been criticised for ruling against the prescription of expensive new drugs on the grounds that they are not cost-effective.
But Sir Michael told the paper that most of Nice’s recommendations were in favour of prescription and that it was other bodies that blocked the drugs’ use.
Sir Michael criticised the local lists of approved medicines drawn up across the NHS which “second-guess” and sometimes ignore Nice recommendations.