A student has stepped in to help doctors decide which drugs should be prescribed on the NHS.

Rashad Khan, 21, an administrator and part-time photography student at Keighley College, was one of 30 people elected to help give "common sense" advice to health professionals when deciding on what treatments and drugs should be available.

Mr Khan - elected to the Citizens' Council of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) - has helped produce a report entitled: "What should Nice take into account when making decisions about clinical need?" Rashad, said: "The Citizens' Council was an empowering experience for me and the other council members.

"We come from different walks of life and different parts of the country so it was fascinating to be able to work together closely and to produce this report.

"We hope it will help to inform Nice about the public's views on clinical need and help it in its difficult task in developing health guidance."

The Citizens' Council members felt it was imperative that Nice gave higher priority to providing treatment to those with chronic illnesses. They said if a condition was purely cosmetic then it should receive less priority, unless it had an adverse affect on mental health. They decided that Nice should not consider whether a disease or a condition was self-induced, saying in their view it should make no difference.

Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, chairman of Nice, said: "I very much welcome this first report from the Citizens' Council. Nice already has the best clinical and scientific experts we can find to give us advice, and we make sure that patients have their say in our work too.

"This report brings the voice of the public to the debate on what Nice should take into account when making decisions about clinical need."