Patients are to be allowed to pay privately for cancer drugs and other end-of-life treatments without having to meet the full cost of their NHS care if they choose to do so.

But in an attempt to limit numbers affected – and to preserve so far as possible the NHS principle that treatment be given according to need, not ability to pay – Nice, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence, is expected to introduce a big increase in the threshold to assess whether such treatments for relatively rare conditions are cost-effective.