NHS Money Cataracts AMD Glaucoma

Saving Sight and Money at the Same Time

Nye Bevan’s dream when the Labour Party established the National Health Service just after the War to give free medical treatment for all is alive but under increasing financial pressure. That is why the recent ruling to allow the NHS to use a cheaper form of treatment for a serious eye condition is such good news; the money saved can be used elsewhere!

It would be foolish to dismiss licensing completely but the alternative treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) that will be used is something that is happily being used across the world as a form of cancer treatment. Why should top drug companies be able to dictate pricing simply because they have bureaucratic approval for their products? It is disingenuous for huge drug companies to even suggest that patients may be being short-changed by the High Court decision, especially when the alternative is so widely used as a tried and tested treatment.

The potential saving for the NHS on an annual basis could run into ‘’ hundreds of millions’’, pounds that is, annually. It is not a matter of cutting corners in the search for budgetary savings, it is absolute common sense as the CEO of NHS South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group, David Hambleton said: "We've always said we think that it's important that patients should have the choice of a very effective treatment for wet AMD, and it's actually a fraction of the cost of the other alternatives.

"So, I think what we do now is offer patients that choice. We believe that they will support very strongly having a cost-effective, safe treatment and saving the NHS generally a lot of money. It is a victory for common sense over commercial interests."

It was the drug giants, Bayer and Novartis who brought the claim when NHS Groups began to offer Avastin, a World Health Organisation approved drug as a far cheaper alternative to their own products. Happily, the Court has agreed with the NHS Groups’ actions. Avartim is twenty times cheaper than Novartis’ and thirty times cheaper than Bayer’s single treatments.

The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) announced at the start of the year that it believed Avartim to be just as effective as the two much dearer treatments and it seems that the Courts have embraced that common sense view by their ruling.

Unfortunately, AMD is fairly common but there are ways to decelerate its development without the costs of the drug companies having to be borne. Vision of course is extremely important which is why eye disease is something that everyone dreads. It seems that 40,000 new cases of AMD are emerging every year so the effect of this ruling is enormous. National news coverage was very prominent and will bring into focus that people can seek forms of eye treatment without putting a huge burden on the NHS. Happy days!