Pensioner denied funding for 'sight-saving' drugs

1:51pm Tuesday 11th March 2008

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A HEALTH trust has been accused of "turning its back" on a patient for refusing to fund a treatment to stop her going blind.

Sight-saving drugs are available for the treatment of wet Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) but Margaret Coates was told by Bromley Primary Care Trust (PCT) she does not qualify for NHS-funded treatment.

This rejection has led to the Hayes resident raiding her life savings to have an injection which costs her £770 per month at a private clinic in Marylebone. She would even consider selling her house to fund further treatment.

The news is made worse by the fact that she is the sole carer for her husband, Alfred, 81 who had a stroke in 2002.

He was diagnosed with the untreatable dry AMD, which is where the vision cells gradually stop working, last November.

Mrs Coates, 79, said: "I can't believe the PCT is abandoning me like this when I could lose my sight.

"The thought of going blind terrifies me."

The grandmother-of-five added: "We live in a civilised country so why are they thinking it is alright to let them elderly people go blind?"

Mrs Coates was diagnosed with the eye disease last November.

It causes new blood vessels to grow behind the retina which causes bleeding and scarring and leads to sight loss.

Recent draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends sight-saving drug Lucentis should be available to all patients who develop AMD. It says one injection costs £761.20 (excluding VAT).

If wet AMD is left untreated, people with the disease can go blind in three months.

Mrs Coates would automatically receive treatment on the NHS if the trust adopted the draft NICE guidance but it has chosen to wait until the final guidance which is expected by June.

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and the Macular Disease Society are trying to persuade the PCT to accept the guidance now and fund her treatment.

RNIB campaign manager Barbara McLaughan said: "This is a shameful way for Bromley PCT to treat its patients.

"The clock is literally ticking to save Mrs Coates' sight, yet the PCT is turning its back on her."

A spokesman for Bromley PCT said it could not comment on individual cases.

But he added that the PCT-funded Lucentis treatment for Bromley residents with Age-related Macular Degeneration is in line with criteria agreed by the NHS for the whole of south east London.

Patients who do not meet these criteria can apply through their clinician to the PCT's Exceptional Treatments Group but they would have to demonstrate exceptional circumstances.