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Primary care trusts are condemning up to 16,000 people a year to blindness because of their refusal to fund potentially sight-saving drugs such as Lucentis, the Conservatives have said.

John Baron, who speaks for the party on ophthalmology, added his voice to the growing criticism over the availability of Lucentis and Macugen. Speaking in the House of Commons last week, Baron slammed Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt for failing to offer concrete assurances that people who needed the drugs would get access to them.

'It is totally unacceptable that 16,000 people a year in England are being condemned to blindness because PCTs are refusing to fund treatments which would save sight,' he commented.

The government's drugs watchdog, Nice, is yet to approve Macugen or Lucentis, which campaigners say is causing some PCTs to refuse funding. Last month the former Labour MP Alice Mohan, who has AMD, said she was considering legal action to force her PCT to fund a course of Lucentis. The drug has been given a European licence, while Macugen has been given the go-ahead for use in Scotland.

According to Steve Winyard, head of campaigns at the RNIB, up to 50 people a day are losing their sight to AMD 'because PCTs are refusing to fund a licensed treatment'.

'The actions of these PCTs are simply unacceptable,' added Winyard.
The Department of Health said it had reiterated guidance to PCTs stating that patients should not be refused a drug purely because it was waiting for Nice approval.

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