Bureaucracy is sending people blind

One of the worst afflictions that can befall someone must surely be to go blind. It must be much worse if their sight could be saved.

This is the fate befalling 16,000 people who could have benefited from Macugen, a treatment for age-related macular degeneration, the biggest cause of blindness in Britain.

The treatment costs £5,000 a year but primary care trusts which are short of money have imposed such strict criteria on its use that many doctors do not even ask permission to prescribe it.

Figures obtained by the Conservatives under the Freedom of Information Act show that just 268 requests to use Macugen were made last year. Of those, 193 were granted.

Harold Thorn, 87, from East Sheen in south-west London, has lost so much of his sight that he can no longer read a newspaper. He has been refused Macugen twice by Richmond and Twickenham primary care trust.

He said: "I keep trying to be positive, but I find it very hard. If they can’t give funds for people who are losing their eyesight, what does the NHS pay for?"

I can tell Mr Thorn: it is spent on sex change operations, tattoo removal and other unnecessary procedures as well as paying for an army of bureaucrats.

People like him, nearing the end of their lives, are expected to suffer in silence.

(with Laura Donnelly)