Are the right people making the decisions at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)

The organisation itself says that it has a number of staff based in both London and Manchester who deliver the Institute's work.

NICE guidance is developed by a number of independent advisory groups made up of health professionals, those working in the NHS, patients, their carers and the public.

However, one criticism levelled at NICE is that a group which takes a decision on whether to approve a drug does not make good use of experts in that particular field.

Professor John Wagstaff, discussing the refusal to approve Sutent for kidney cancer sufferers, said that on the panel to decide the case there was only one cancer specialist present.

Professor John Harris, Professor of Bioethics at Manchester University, has been fiercely critical of the way NICE makes its decisions and even said it would be fairer if they tossed a coin.

He added that even if a drug only managed to extend life by a relatively short time, if it achieved that there was no justification for denying it to a patient and to do so 'ran contrary to all principles of human rights'.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/3248107/Nice-decisions-on-drugs-are-flawed-and-tossing-a-coin-is-fairer-says-academic.html