Plans to withdraw drugs abandoned

Campaigner David Sutcliffe is glad the plan has been dropped

A Sussex health trust has abandoned plans to stop prescribing drugs which slow the onset of Alzheimer's Disease.

East Sussex County Healthcare Trust drafted plans in May to freeze dementia drug prescriptions for three months for Alzheimer's sufferers in care homes.

The Alzheimer's Society was against the cost-cutting idea and said the drug improved patients' quality of life.

A spokesman for the Trust, which has overspent its budget, said the plan had only been a been a draft proposal.

Media interest

When asked if media interest in the moratorium had provoked Tuesday's decision, the spokesman said: "That could be a perception.

"I accept people have a right to form their own views and they could be based on those perceptions.

"At any point these were draft proposals and protocols that were going to be discussed and put to the Primary Care Trusts.

"This was never a preferred option."

David Sutcliffe, the chairman of the Eastbourne and district branch of the Alzheimer's Society, said the three-month moratorium would have been highly discriminatory.

Mr Sutcliffe said: "You could say that people with Alzheimer's are a soft touch, they won't complain.

"Their carers may well also not complain because they are up to their eyes in the difficulties of being a carer."