NICE comes of age

摘要

Britain's National Health Service (NHS) was founded in 1947 to provide comprehensive and necessary health care for all UK citizens, free at the point of use, and funded from general taxation. These principles have, broadly, been maintained. But, by the 1990s, they were under pressure. First, a number of NHS organisations decided that some new drug treatments were too expensive and declined to provide them for their patients. Others, however, were willing (or able) to do so, resulting in what became known as the "postcode [or zip code] lottery". This was controversial in the media and deeply unpopular with the public, who felt that everyone needing a particular treatment should have it, regardless of where they lived.