NICE work if you can get it

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence is establishing the UK's first citizens'council to advise its decision makers.This week it starts a recruitment process to find 30 members of the public in England and Wales to consider issues from a public perspective.NICE chair Professor Sir Michael Rawlins said: 'The involvement of patients and carers in NICE's decision-making has always been extremely important, but it has been a long-term aim of ours to involve the wider public in our work.The Kennedy report on Bristol only served to reinforce the importance of involving the public in NHS decision-making.'NICE has appointed an independent specialist company with a track record in recruiting and running citizens' juries to recruit the council.Chief executive Andrew Dillon said the council would not include people who work in the NHS or in private medicine and that those working for the Department of Health, the National Assembly for Wales health teams, the healthcare industries or groups or organisations supporting patient or industry groups will be excluded.

For an application pack visit www. nice. org. uk