Health chiefs expect to spend at least £17m a year in the region on the drug Lucentis, which is highly effective in treating the eye disorder wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

It follows a two-year battle to secure the treatment for NHS patients who were being controversially left to go blind in one eye and only treated when the condition hit their second eye.

Now doctors will be able to treat patients once they are diagnosed with deteriorating eyesight caused by the disorder, which usually affects older people and can cause blindness within three months.

Some hospitals have already set up new clinics to deal with more than 2,000 patients likely to need the treatment each year and other units will open in coming months to deal with an expected surge in demand.

Last night patient groups welcomed a move which they said was long overdue.

Spokeswoman Cathy Yelf, of the Macular Disease Society, said: "This is very good news for people in Yorkshire.

"People have suffered terribly. They have paid out a fortune to get this treatment privately or they have lost their sight in the time it has taken for this decision to be made.

"Patients have been put through enormous amounts of stress – we are very critical of the length of time this has taken."

The campaigns manager at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), Barbara Mc-Laughlan, said the drug was now being provided as a matter of course by about half the primary care trusts (PCTs) in the country.

Ms McLaughlan said: "We know it is very effective in the vast majority of cases. In some, people who are registered partially sighted have been able to drive again as a result of the treatment."

Health chiefs in Hull are already well advanced in organising treatment for patients from the area.

Consultant ophthalmologist Louise Downey, clinical lead for the condition at Hull and East Yorkshire Eye Hospital, said more staff had been recruited to deal with the additional numbers eligible to use the drug, which is injected into affected eyes.

She said the drug offered significant advantages, giving 30-40 per cent of patients a significant improvement in their eyesight, compared with only five per cent in previous therapy. In 90-95 per cent of cases the drug saved them from losing vision completely.

"We're quite excited about it. We're looking forward to treating as many patients as possible," she said.

The chief executive at Hull PCT which funds treatment, Chris Long, said it had budgeted for costs of £2.6m a year for about 120 patients from the city likely to need treatment.

The costs were substantial, some of the largest amounts paid out for new drugs. But it was hoped these would be offset by reduced numbers of falls and bone fractures among patients and cuts in the cost of social care, he added.

"I'm very pleased that we're now able to do this for local people," he said. "Funding new drugs does cause us problems but at the end of the day this is about saving people's sight."

In North Yorkshire, health chiefs say they plan to spend £2m on Lucentis in the coming year.

The decision to fund the drug comes ahead of final guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence expected at the end of the summer.

Until now, patients have had to wait until their second eye is affected or seek private treatment. The two-year cost of 14 injections runs to more than £10,000.

In future costs could fall dramatically if a major NHS trial of another drug, Avastin, proves successful. The drug is already provided in some parts of the country but NHS chiefs in Yorkshire have decided against paying for it until its effects have been fully evaluated.

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