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Yorkshire victory for two-year eye drug campaign
EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of patients at risk of blindness in Yorkshire have won their fight for free NHS care and are being offered full treatment using the latest drug.
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.
Video blog - A suitable case for treatment Treatment on the NHS will save patient big money
The change of policy is a major boon for a former waitress who spent her savings on treatment, reports Health Correspondent Mike Waites
FREE NHS treatment for age-related macular degeneration cannot come too soon for great-grandmother Margaret Walker, who lost her sight in her left eye suddenly two years ago.
Since then, she estimates, she has spent more than 10,000 on private treatment for the condition – which has exhausted her savings.
Although she has suffered a variety of health problems since her retirement, her sight in her left eye went overnight.
"It went black just like that," she said.
She said she was referred to a doctor at Pinderfields Hospital, in Wakefield, who bluntly told her that she was going blind.
"I came home and sat and thought about it and thought I'd go private rather than go blind," she said.
She was referred to the state-of-the-art Yorkshire Eye Hospital in Apperley Bridge, near Bradford, where she has been successfully treated using injections with the latest generation of drugs against macular degeneration including Avastin.
The drug – which is cheaper than existing alternatives – is not routinely used on the NHS but after three injections she noticed her sight had been restored in her left eye.
"I was sitting watching the television and I realised I could see," she said.
Both her eyes have now been treated after the condition spread and she can read or watch television without any problems.
Mrs Walker, 73, who lives in Rothwell, near Leeds, worked for many years as a waitress at the Schofields department store in Leeds.
She said: "The treatment I've had has been marvellous. Everyone has been very good."
But she said she was relieved it was now being provided on the NHS.
"Otherwise I wouldn't be able to continue with it because you can't pay for it on a pension," she added.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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