The NHS must commission services nationally to end "shameful" regional variations, doctors have told the British Medical Association (BMA) conference.

Doctors voted to adopt consistent national standards and thresholds for NHS services on "low priority" treatments at the BMA's annual conference in Cardiff this week.

Regional variations were often due to different definitions and thresholds being used by different regional primary care organisations, the conference heard.

GP negotiator Chaand Nagpaul stressed that access to treatments often depended on the patient's location.

"No patient should ever have to endure the injustice of being denied a treatment simply based on their postcode of residence," he told the conference.

Nationally commissioned services could benefit both patients and pharmacy, NHS Future Forum representative Ash Soni told C+D.

"The biggest thing is getting consistency that patients will be able to see," he said. "It would also be much easier for services to be delivered, so we would get pharmacy much more engaged."

Doctors also voted for stock shortages to be addressed. The Department of Health should address medicine shortages and the pharmaceutical industry should be "held to account" for its failings, delegates at the BMA conference agreed.