Pleas for NHS to fund vital eye treatment

12:23pm Tuesday 13th February 2007

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A TAUNTON woman is backing calling for the NHS to fund eye treatment she believes could save her sight.

Beryl Peters, 70, of Shakespeare Avenue, is supporting calls made by another Taunton resident 85-year-old Patrick Reyre.

Last week the County Gazette exclusively revealed how Mr Reyre feared he could lose his sight to wet eye macular degeneration- a condition where the blood vessels in the eye leak, eventually destroying the central vision - after being told the NHS was not funding a particular type of treatment his doctor had recommended.

He had decided to pay £4,000 out of saving he had put aside for his funeral to pay for 10 injections of Macugen rather than wait to see if the NHS changed its mind.

However, after hearing of Mr Reyre's plight Richard Desmond, proprietor of the Daily Express newspaper decided he would fund the treatment.

But Mrs Peters says she simple cannot afford to pay for the treatment herself, and therefore is backing Mr Reyre's calls for the NHS to fund Macugen.

She has lost the sight in her right eye due to the condition and is starting to lose the sight in her left as well.

She is currently receiving fluorescent treatment in Bristol, but says she has been told Macugen would be more effective.

Mrs Peters said: "I think it's wrong that Macugen is not available to me when I have been told it could save my sight.

"To lose your sight is just awful.

"I am about to be registered partially disabled and have to rely on my husband Peter for a lot of things now - I can't even cross the road on my own.

"I can't afford to pay for this treatment, so my sight will just keep getting worse.

A spokesman for Somerset Primary Care Trust (PCT) said: "Somerset PCT does not routinely fund the drug Macugen for the treatment of the wet form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

"The benefit and cost effectiveness of the drug is currently being considered by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), who are expected to publish guidance to the NHS by August/September.

"The PCT would advise a patient who believes it would be clinically beneficial for them to have it to write to the PCT (or ask their hospital specialist to write on their behalf) and request that it be funded. The PCT would then consider their request.

"The PCT has a process to consider such individual requests for new drugs or treatments and is able to consider each on a patient-by-patient basis.

"If it is deemed clinically appropriate, the PCT may be prepared to fund the drug."