Vince Cable

Older residents suffering from a deterioration of the eyes due to Macular Degeneration have been promised NHS treatment.

They were refused it in the past because the drug (Lucentis) failed an NHS cost-benefit test. The consequence was that many residents were allowed to go blind in one eye before any action would be taken.

Vincent Cable MP campaigned against this "rationing" in the past (his press releases: "MP Presses for Public Consultation on Local Health Choices", 14/05/07; "Health Rationing: 'One Eye is Enough'", 07/06/07). But after taking up the case of a local woman who was refused treatment having already gone blind in one eye, he has been told that the treatment will be made more freely available within six months:

"This was a particularly cruel form of NHS rationing under which blindness in one eye was considered acceptable. I am glad that approval has now been given to make the medicines more widely available and I hope that can happen locally now rather than in six months time, which I understand is the maximum time allowed to implement this new policy.

"The Sheer heartlessness of the rationing was brought home to me by the experiences of Mrs Coldman, a constituent who was in danger of losing sight completely because of the refusal to authorise treatment in the NHS for macular degeneration."