PCTs to be scrutinised on NICE guidance cash.(primary care trusts, National Institute for Clinical Excellence )

The DoH has signalled that it will be scrutinising PCTs' financial planning more closely to ensure that adequate investment is being made to implement NICE guidance.

Speaking at the NICE annual conference in Birmingham last week, health minister Lord Warner, who is responsible for NICE, said the government would be concentrating its attention on 'getting implementation right' over the next year.

He said: 'One way we could help to embed NICE guidance within NHS practices is to look more carefully at the way in which the NHS plans budgets within its three-year funding notification.

'We need to seek better ways of ensuring that in the planning of …