Pensioner left to go blind due to lack of funding (From The Argus)

Pensioner left to go blind due to lack of funding

5:03pm Wednesday 13th February 2008

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A pensioner has been left to go blind because a health authority won't pay to treat him.

Colin Valder, 77, from Valley Drive, Brighton, has two forms of macular degeneration, a condition which will eventually blind him.

But Brighton and Hove City Teaching Primary Care Trust (PCT) has refused the father of three and grandfather of five the £1,000-a-time treatment he needs to stop him going blind in his right eye until he has lost the sight in his left eye.

And in a disturbing example of a postcode lottery, it has emerged that other PCTs in the country do treat the condition.

Mr Valder, who is also undergoing treatment for prostate cancer, has wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in his right eye and dry AMD, for which there is no cure, in his left eye.

With the sight in his right eye rapidly deteriorating, he has made a desperate appeal to the PCT to agree to pay for sight-saving drugs Lucentis or Macugen on the NHS before it is too late.

He said: "The thought of losing my sight absolutely terrifies me.

"I'm angry as treatments are available, but it seems saving money is more important to the PCT than saving people's sight.

"I just hope the PCT will have a change of heart before it's too late for me."

Born in Moulsecoomb and having lived in Brighton all his life, Mr Valder has paid taxes while working as an engineer and company manager and only retired five years ago when he was 72.

He said: "I'm fairly fit and healthy. I'm a non-smoker and I don't drink to excess.

"I'm not a moaner. I've had a good life. I've got a nice house, a lovely wife and family but I'm worried about the future."

His wife of 52 years Jackie said: "It's scandalous that Colin has lived in Brighton all his life, paid taxes all his working life and yet is denied treatment which could stop him going blind.

"But if we lived in Scotland then he would be treated straight away."

Having had his initial application for funding rejected, Mr Valder has appealed to the PCT's exceptions committee but must prove 'exceptional circumstances' to qualify for treatment.

Under the PCT's funding policy, 80 per cent of patients with wet AMD are automatically excluded from treatment and the remaining 20 per cent must have first gone blind in one eye before being considered for treatment in their second eye.

But new guidance, issued in December by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), means Mr Valder would automatically receive treatment - if it was implemented by the PCT.

It recommends that Lucentis is available to patients with wet AMD, whether it is their first or second eye that is affected and has already been adopted by some PCTs but not by all.

Two blindness charities, the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and the Macular Disease Society, have supported Mr Valder's plea to the PCT.

Barbara McLaughan, RNIB campaigns manager, said: "This is a very distressing situation for Mr Valder to be in.

"Many patients are facing a race against time to save their sight because PCTs, like Brighton and Hove City, are operating such a restrictive funding policy.

"It's shameful that patients are having to jump through hoops to prove they deserve sight saving drugs on the NHS.

"The only alternative is to pay for private treatment - which for many is not an option - or risk blindness.

"Rather than turning its back on Mr Valder, the PCT could throw him, and many other patients, a lifeline by adopting a much fairer policy."

A spokesperson at Brighton and Hove City Teaching Primary Care Trust said: "The PCT funds Lucentis treatment for a limited number of patients, in line with criteria from Moorfields Hospital on treating patients with macular degeneration.

"Nice publish their final guidance on the use of Lucentis in March at which point we will review our policy."

For advice on accessing treatments for AMD, call the RNIB on 0845 766 9999 or the Macular Disease Society helpline on 0845 241 2041.

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