The government will set out plans to speed up the approval of drugs for use in the NHS on Monday.

The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) can take up to two years to make a decision but ministers want this cut to six months.

Patients will have their legal rights to drugs recommended by NICE laid out in the NHS constitution to tackle the "postcode lottery" in England.

And health trusts will no longer be able to refuse drugs on cost alone.

The draft version of the constitution is expected to set out what patients and staff are entitled to from the NHS.

This includes "fundamental principles" such as universal access to healthcare and drugs and treatments approved by NICE.

Rights

A Department of Health spokesperson said their was a false "perception" that some treatments approved by NICE were not universally available and the constitution would make the legal rights of patients more clear.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said: "What we have heard from patients is that one of their major concerns is the perceived 'postcode lottery' in access to drugs - that there are too many variations around who gets access to prescribed drugs and that these variations are a lottery depending on where you live.

"The draft constitution will address this by making it explicit that patients have the right to Nice-approved drugs if clinically appropriate."

Primary care trusts will no longer be able to say they are waiting for NICE to make a decision as an excuse to avoid giving patients an answer on whether they will get a drug - and will not be able to refuse provision due to lack of funding.

Instead, they will be required to look at the evidence on efficacy and cost effectiveness and give detailed explanation to patients refused treatment recommended by their doctors.

The issue of access to new, often expensive drugs, on the NHS has been a contentious one.

Much of the delay in assessing a new drug has been pinned on the failure of government to refer them to NICE quickly enough.

The most controversial drug to go through the process has been the breast cancer therapy Herceptin.

It was finally approved by NICE in 2006 after a number of patients had taken their primary care trust to court over their refusal to fund treatment.

Some have also argued that patients should be allowed to pay for treatment not approved for use on the NHS without losing their right to NHS services.

Ministers in Wales, Scotland and now England have begun reviews into whether these "co-payments" should be allowed alongside NHS treatment - however, the subject will not be addressed by the new constitution.

(BBC)

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