SIGHT SAVING TREATMENTS FOR WET AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION

That this House expresses its concern at preliminary recommendations published by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) regarding future NHS funding for new anti-VEGF treatments for wet age-related macular degeneration; notes that NICE's recommendations would see treatment denied to up to 80 per cent. of those who could benefit; believes that it is contrary to the principles of the National Health Service to require patients to go blind in one eye before becoming eligible for treatment of the other eye; and therefore calls on the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence carefully to consider representations made in response to their preliminary recommendations by stakeholder groups such as the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, Royal College of Nursing, Macular Disease Society and Royal National Institute of Blind People before making its final recommendations on access to treatment later this year.