ABSTRACT
Health care here is under local authority control, but priority setting has developed under national direction. A framework has been established with five categories of priority for treatment: emergencies, serious cases, cases in need of treatment but not so serious, cases requiring effective treatment but whose need is not pressing and, lastly, care that is demanded but which is neither needed nor of proven value. Only the last would not be provided: it has ‘zero priority’. No list has been made of specific exclusions, nor has much interest been shown in the development of clinical guidelines except for bone marrow transplantation.
