Patients Begin Court Battle Over Eyesight Drug Refusal

Three elderly patients have launched a landmark High Court challenge over an NHS trust’s “absolutely ridiculous” refusal to fund potentially sight-saving treatment.

Backed by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), they are asking a judge to rule that Warwickshire healthcare chiefs acted “unlawfully and irrationally” in refusing to pay for the drug Ranibizumab, better known under its trade name Lucentis, which is available elsewhere.

The sight of all three is threatened by wet age-related macular degeneration (wet-AMD).

The RNIB describes wet-AMD as the most common cause of sight loss in the UK. It can lead to blindness in as little as three months if left untreated and one of the most successful new drug treatments is Lucentis, although there are others.

The test case battle arose because Warwickshire NHS Primary Care Trust (PCT) has a policy of only funding Lucentis in “exceptional” cases and has decided the three do not come into that category.

The RNIB has accused the trust, and others around the country with similar policies dictated by budget considerations, of “heartlessly letting patients in their care go blind”.

One test case applicant, Raymond Liggins, 77, from Nuneaton, spoke outside the High Court in London of witnessing fellow wet-AMD sufferers weeping in hospital knowing that, because of a “postcode lottery”, they were being denied treatment that might stop them going blind.

He said: “I have been in hospital and seen people crying because they have this disease and they have not got money to fund treatment, but in other counties in this country and in Scotland patients can get it free on the NHS.”

The health trust is vigorously defending its policies in court. It criticises the RNIB for failing to acknowledge it is trying to get Avastin, an alternative and equally effective drug, licensed for NHS use. Avastin is only about 10 per cent the cost of Lucentis. The trust warns that it if the RNIB wins it would be impossible to refuse to fund any new treatments sought by patients, leading to cuts for others.

(c) 2008 Yorkshire Post. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.