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Abstract
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The UK government has asked the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to stop working on guidance on six public health topics and "to put on hold" work on a further 13.
NICE has been told to abandon its guidance on preventing road injuries in children and young people, spatial planning for health (changing the physical environment to improve health), and other topics.
The cuts substantially scale back the organization's workload -- just nine out of 28 public health projects remain -- and follow the publication of the public health white paper "Healthy Lives, Healthy People". In the document, the UK government outlines new 'responsibility deals' it plans to negotiate with business and the voluntary sector, in which voluntary targets are set by the industry to 'nudge' people into healthier choices.
Chris Daniel, policy analyst for the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: "It is good news that spending on these wasteful projects has been scrapped. We need to see money focused on cutting the burden on taxpayers....We need to stop money being wasted like this in future on new projects, and stop these wasteful, nannying initiatives permanently."
Alan Maryon-Davis, honorary director of public health at King’s College London and chair of the NICE public health topic consideration panel, said he was very disappointed by the cuts. "It is a pity to take this work away from NICE, because it has a very good track record of producing evidence on which to build policy, something which is becoming even more important as local authorities and public health bodies are being asked to work together to improve public health."
The full list of topics may be read at:
http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/phg/indevelopment/updatedpublichealthguidancetopics.jsp
Language: en |