Vital treatment to save eyesight denied
A PHOTOGRAPHER from St Veep claims the NHS is risking her eyesight by denying her an effective treatment which would cure her rare condition.
Emma Wiehahn suffers from a form of macular degeneration, which causes a loss of central vision due to the blood vessels behind the eye swelling and bursting causing scarring in the most sensitive part of the eye.
Drugs do exist which experts say are successful in treating the condition – but the NHS has refused to pay for Emma's treatment.
Emma, 48, said: "I woke up on a Monday morning in March with some unnatural blurry vision in my right eye. I saw a doctor who diagnosed me with the condition and said early treatment is vital.
"I paid for one treatment of Avastin, which was like a miracle drug. I told the PCT about the success I experienced after being administered the drug and that I run a photography business, with my husband, and my eye sight is obviously vital. But apparently this doesn't mean anything to them.
Elderly people are much more likely to suffer with the condition, and they do get the treatment they need. But I'm not – it's really frustrating."
Emma wants the treatment now as she has been told the condition could spread to her left eye.
"I woke up one morning unexpectedly suffering with the condition in my right eye," she said. "I'm just fearful of waking to find my left eye has the same problem. I urge the PCT to help me now."
The drugs – Lucentis, which costs about £900 a dose, or Avastin, which costs less than £100 – are injected behind the eye to stop the vessels from swelling.
However, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust (PCT) does fund for some people to be treated by these drugs but won't pay for Emma's.
She is just one of around 1,200 people in the whole of the UK which suffer with this rare condition.
But they do have the support of the charity Macular Disease Society which exists to help patients who suffer with macular degeneration.
The charity's chief executive, Tom Bremridge, said: "We believe in the NHS. It is a great institution but the Department of Health allows 152 individual PCTs in England to impose their own rationing of treatment, flagrantly ignoring medical opinion."
Steve Moore, the director of commissioning with NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly said: "We fund all treatments approved in NICE technology appraisals including those for age related macular degeneration and we have recently brought this service back into Cornwall to provide better local access.
"We consider requests to fund non NICE approved treatments through an exceptional treatment panel on which clinicians are in the majority.
"Requests to fund exceptional treatments should be made before the treatment happens. We are happy to consider further reques
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