We face sacrificing our home to save our eyesight (From Daily Echo)

We face sacrificing our home to save our eyesight

1:00pm Sunday 17th June 2007 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

THEY have only one good eye between them.

However, a retired Hampshire couple face having to sell the home they have lived in for the past 20 years and moving to a less expensive property or losing their eyesight.

This is because they are having to pay out thousands of pounds for private healthcare because the eye treatment they need is not available on the NHS.

Lawrence and Joan O'Brien from Rownhams say they will have to sacrifice their home if they have to keep paying private medical bills for treating wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD).

“I’d rather die then go blind. I can’t think of anything worse.”

Joan O'Brien

The couple are paying some £600 every eight weeks for an injection into each affected eye.

The most common cause of sightloss, wet AMD can make a person blind within three months, but treatment for the disease is not readily available on the NHS despite it being provided to patients in Scotland and across Europe.

Lawrence, 74, and Joan, 70, are paying out for treatments of Avastin, which is cheaper than Lucentis and other anti-blindness drug Macugen.

Lucentis has yet to be given the go-ahead in England and Wales "I'd rather die then go blind. I can't think of anything worse," said Joan, who was first diagnosed with the disease in both eyes two years ago and has since paid more than £6,000 for private treatment.

Since then husband Lawrence has been diagnosed with WMD in one of his eyes and also faces a costly bill for the treatment, which is now being given free to patients in Scotland.

"It's unbelievable that people in Scotland can now get the treatment and we can't," he said. "We are both healthy people and have paid our National Insurance all our lives. We only have one good eye between us now and the one time we need help we can't get it because we live in the wrong country."

For the drugs to be offered on the NHS they need approval from the National Institute of Clinical Excellence - NICE - but this week Government watchdogs published draft guidance to only recommend the treatment of Lucentis for patients who suffer from the classic form of the disease and are already blind in one eye, leaving 20,000 patients to go blind or pay thousands of pounds in private care.

However, regional Primary Care Trusts in England can grant patients treatment on the NHS without NICE approval.

"The problem is that we were told it would take three months for a consultation in Southampton to see if we could have the treatment on the NHS," said Mr O'Brien. "But with this you go blind in three months so you have no choice but to go private."

Mr O'Brien said their GP was currently putting their case to city health bosses Southampton City PCT, which covers Mr and Mrs O'Brien's healthcare, say to date it had received two requests for treatment and they are being investigated, but were unable to confirm if these were from the Rownhams couple due to patient confidentiality.

A spokeswoman said requests were considered by the PCT's exceptional case review panel, if there is support from a local NHS specialist and evidence of exceptional circumstances.

"Cases will be presented to the panel who meet monthly. The panel will discuss the request and make a decision based on the evidence provided.

"The trust is working with local clinicians on ways to fund these drugs once they have been approved by NICE," she added.

NICE will make a final ruling on the use of licensed medicine Lucentis and Macugen in the NHS in the autumn and clinical trials of Avastin are also expected this year.