Eyesight drug timescale demands

Advertisement

NICE has aggreed to make Lucentis, used to treat wet AMD available on the NHS

A timescale of three months should be met by local health boards in Wales to offer a drug which could save the sight of eye patients, says a charity.

The Royal Institute for the Blind Cymru (RNIB) said the drug Lucentis should now be available on time to all patients who need it.

It can be used to treat wet age-related macular degeneration, which affects 1,300 a year in Wales.

The Welsh health minister has already promised £5m for one financial year.

It's quite amazing that I can see a bit better now that I have had my first two injections Patient Ruby Morrin

The condition is the biggest cause of sight loss among elderly people.

The RNIB will carry out an audit later this year to make sure that patients in Wales are getting the drug, after the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) gave the go-ahead for it to be used by patients in England.

In December, Nice had decided only to treat the wet AMD after patients went blind in one eye.

But after a long campaign by the RNIB, Nice has now decided all patients in England suffering from the condition will now have access to the drug.

This also means Wales, which already had money to pay for the drug for a year, now has a timescale of when treatment is available, said the charity.

The drug is already available in Scotland and as well as Wales, Northern Ireland has said it will be funded.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) comes in two forms - wet and dry - with the dry form being much more common. However, the wet type is more aggressive and is responsible for about 90% of blindness caused by the condition.

Sarah Rochira, director of RNIB Cymru, said: "Today's decision will mean that local health boards in Wales now have three months to ensure that services are available across Wales.

"The £5m made available by the minister in June will ensure that they have the resources to meet the needs of the 1,300 people who develop this condition every year."

She added that the charity would conduct an independent audit of services in Wales in December.

Completely degenerated

Ruby Morrin, 73, from Broughton in Flintshire, started sight-saving treatment at HM Stanley in St Asaph, and has seen some improvement, and is now able to read telephone numbers again.

But she said it had been a long and difficult journey to get treatment.

She said: "My right eye had completely degenerated. In November of last year I noticed a difference - wobbly lines - in my left eye and from November until June the RNIB have battled for me.

"I feel lucky to be one of the few people who have been treated on the NHS. Hopefully soon treatment will become available to everyone who has wet AMD."

The Welsh Assembly Government said it was "ahead of the game" on the issue and was already looking at delivery of treatment.

The chair of the Hywel Dda NHS trust Chris Martin is leading a review of the management of the disease and had received responses from local health boards and was expecting to report back in the coming weeks on strategy and capacity.

The spokesman added: "With regards to funding for Lucentis in the future, the commitment is not open-ended. It would be foolhardy to make such a promise when we could be in a position to fund other drugs that are currently under scrutiny by Nice which could provide treatment that would be as or more successful for patients, and at less cost to the NHS.

"We will however continue to fund Lucentis, whilst the Nice guidance is extant."