The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is funding legal action against Oxfordshire PCT, for denying sight saving treatment to an 84 year old patient, Dennis Devier. The pensioner suffers from wet AMD (age-related macular degeneration), which affects 26,000 people each year. If left untreated, the condition can lead to blindness in as little as three months.
Steve Winyard, RNIB’s Head of Campaigns, said: "Oxfordshire PCT has told Dennis that for him to be eligible for sight-saving treatment he must be an 'exceptional case'. Dennis has had his appeal turned down three times now. If Dennis isn't an 'exceptional case', then my question to Oxfordshire PCT is, who is?"
NICE recently announced preliminary guidelines, which could deny all but one in five patients in England and Wales treatment, and only after the patient has gone blind in one eye.
