Revised guidance on key Alzheimer's drugs is "terrible, unethical and unworkable" and could affect the care of patients, a Bradford campaigner said today.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) provoked uproar in March last year when it published draft advice that said drug treatments for the disease were not cost-effective enough to be available on the NHS.

Its Appraisal Committee is now recommending that three drugs should be "considered as options in the treatment of people with Alzheimer's disease of moderate severity only".

It means that those in the mild stages and the later stages of Alzheimer's disease will be denied drugs on the NHS. Ruth Gallagher, branch manager of Bradford's Alzheimer's Society, said: "I am relieved that they have not taken the whole thing and said you are not going to get anything but it is a huge concern that drugs you know work for people in the mild stages of the disease are not going to be available - you have to get ill first and that is terrible, unethical and unworkable."

Mrs Gallagher said people who have already received a diagnosis and those on the drugs now would not have their treatment withdrawn.

But she was concerned the decision could stop doctors seeking a diagnosis for patients. "For what other illness would we wait for people to decline so much that they cannot get on with their lives?," she said.

Mrs Gallagher, who along with other members of the Bradford branch of the Alzheimer's Society has campaigned against NICE on the subject of drugs for Alzheimer's patients, said the battle would continue.

"This is a draft decision and the campaign will carry on," she said. "We have until February 13 to respond to NICE which is what we will be doing and I urge others to do the same.

"This decision will not affect current patients but it is what is going to happen in the future that makes us feel very angry." The Alzheimer's Society estimates some 72,000 people have mild Alzheimer's in the UK, with around 309,000 in the moderate to severe category.

The draft is published on the NICE website, and consultation is set to end on February 13. The final guidance to the NHS in England and Wales is expected in July 2006.