The government is to significantly increase NICE's budget to allow it to take on more work, according to the watchdog's chairman.

Sir Michael Rawlins told the BBC he had been very vocal about the need for more funding and was confident the government had listened.

Set up in 1999, NICE will have completed 120 guidelines by 2010. These need to be revised every three to four years, and Sir Michael said that without further funding the watchdog would not be able to undertake any new appraisals.

"We are proposing to the government that they invest much more heavily in our guidelines programme so we can not just keep the existing ones up-to-date, but do a whole lot of further guidelines," Sir Michael told the BBC.

"This will mean we can considerably improve the quality of care patients get from the NHS," he added.

Sir Michael was interviewed to mark next week's 60th anniversary of the NHS and an announcement on increasing NICE's funding could be made then. This might come within Lord Darzi's Next Stage Review of the health service, which will be published on Monday to coincide with the celebrations.

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