A strengthened legal right for patients to receive all drugs and treatments approved by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence will be promised today as part of the government's "next stage" review of the NHS, which has at its heart a big drive to improve the quality of care.

In an attempt to reduce the "postcode lottery", Nice will receive a boost in spending to allow it to evaluate more drugs - deciding whether they should be adopted by the National Health Service - in parallel with their licensing for use. This streamlined procedure has already been adopted for cancer drugs.