PHOTODYNAMIC THERAPY FOR AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION

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That this House expresses its dismay at the draft guidance recently issued by NICE which rations the use of photodynamic therapy for age-related macular degeneration to treatment of the only-functioning or better-seeing eye and in specialist centres only; notes that age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in the United Kingdom and that photodynamic therapy could benefit as many as 7,500 patients a year; believes that by rationing the use of photodynamic therapy to treatment of the better eye only NICE may be condemning patients to blindness in their other, untreated eye; believes that the deleterious effect this will have on patients' quality of life is impossible to justify and that the guidance has no clinical basis; and calls on NICE to review its final appraisal determination on photodynamic therapy as a matter of urgency.