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Topic started by Christopher L (clansmanchris)

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A topic from Body, Health & Wellbeing: Health

clansmanchrisMon 02/07/07 20:14

If you are reading this, consider yourself lucky enough to still have your sight. A draft ruling by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) means that four out of five patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) – as many as 20,000 people – could be denied treatment to save their sight each year.

For the 'lucky' one in five, NICE is proposing that they must first go blind in one eye and only then can they be treated when sight starts to fail in their second eye.

This draft ruling is both cruel and unjustifiable. Everything possible should be done to save sight. The new treatments – Lucentis and Macugen – have the potential to halve the number of people going blind in the UK each year, so everyone who can benefit should be offered them.

Incredibly, this appalling decision has been based solely on the basis of cost. The devastating impact on the lives of thousands of people who will go blind as a result has been ignored, as has the huge cost of providing personal care to those who would not necessarily need it if their sight was retained.

The Royal College of Ophthalmogists has called the NICE ruling 'completely unacceptable'. The Royal National Institute of Blind People agrees and needs your help to fight this unfair decision.

You can help in two ways. Firstly, by writing to your MP, asking them to support EDM 1711, which calls on NICE to look again at the evidence showing the need for wider access to AMD treatment. Secondly, by writing to Andrew Dillon, the head of NICE, asking him to reconsider this ill-considered irresponsible measure. Let them know you object to forcing people to lose their sight just to help keep the Government's books balanced. Remind them that Lucentis and Macugen are freely available in Scotland, and that people in the USA, Australia, France, Germany and Italy, all enjoy the benefits of early AMD care.

It is essential that objections to the NICE ruling are heard loud and clear. NICE will be closing their consultation period on 12 July but that is not necessarily the end of the story. If enough pressure is applied, this outrageous decision could be challenged in the coming months.

Please take a moment to voice your views. To reach Andrew Dillon, please write to Andrew Dillon, Chief Executive, NICE, Mid-City Place, 71 Holborn, London, WC1V 6NA, or e-mail him at nice@nice.org.uk.

Thank you for your support on this urgent issue.

Clansmanchris, xx.

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