Lesley's plea to Whitehall health chiefs (From Keighley News)

Lesley's plea to Whitehall health chiefs

11:39am Thursday 17th September 2009

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A hospital catering assistant, who faces losing her eyesight, is calling on Whitehall health bosses to come to her rescue.

Lesley Fletcher, who suffers macular degeneration, wants the Department of Health to force all primary care trusts to finance the treatment.

The 55-year-old grandmother of 11 faces going blind because NHS North Yorkshire and York refuses to pay for the sight-saving treatment which some other authorities do finance.

She is backing the Macular Disease Society which wants national guidelines to be set up about who should be allowed care and receive the drug Lucentis.

Earlier this year Mrs Fletcher, of Park Drive, Sutton, who works at Airedale Hospital, spoke to the All-Parliamentary Group on Eye Health and Visual Impairment hoping it would back the society.

“I was very disappointed. I didn't get any feedback whatsoever - not even a letter,” she said.

“It makes you feel as if nobody cares. Do we have to lose our sight before something happens?”

Most frustrating was that the North Yorkshire and York trust was prepared to pay £700 a time for her laser treatment, but not the £800 for the drug Lucentis, she said.

“I have worked all my life and paid my contributions. When I want something back, I’m slapped in the face,” she added.

Mrs Fletcher's ophthalmologist, Helen Devonport, said: "My first choice therapy in Mrs Fletcher's case was Lucentis, but when funding was declined by the PCT I offered her laser treatment as I was concerned that further delay in any treatment could compromise her vision."

The treatment had helped but Mrs Fletcher was frightened that if the disease progressed she would again be refused Lucentis.

Macular Disease Society bosses have hit out at the PCTs for "flagrantly ignoring medical opinion".

The charity’s chief executive, Tom Bremridge, said: “If the Department of Health would give central direction, PCTs would not have the freedom to wriggle out of their duty of care to patients," he said.

“More money could then be spent on treating patients rather than employing expensive staff to find excuses for not doing so.”

Universally, doctors wanted to use the drug which had been recommended by NICE for the linked condition – Age Related Macular degeneration.

A spokesman for NHS North Yorkshire and York said the situation remained unchanged from when the issue was last highlighted in April and it Lucentis would not be routinely issued.

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