Trio sue NHS over sight care denial
Three elderly patients are launching a High Court test case challenge over an NHS trust's refusal to fund sight-saving treatment.
Backed by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), they are asking a judge to rule that Warwickshire healthcare chiefs have acted "unlawfully and irrationally".
The sight of all three is threatened by wet age-related macular degeneration (wet-AMD).
The RNIB describes it as the most common cause of sight loss in the UK and can lead to blindness in as little as three months if left untreated.
The charity says licensed anti-VEGF drugs, including Lucentis, have successfully halted sight degeneration, while improving it in 30 to 40% of patients.
But thousands of patients across England are still being denied NHS funding for treatment in what amounts to a "postcode lottery".
The RNIB is accusing Warwickshire NHS Primary Care Trust (PCT) of "heartlessly letting patients in their care go blind" by effectively operating a blanket ban on funding anti-VEGF drugs.
RNIB's head of campaigns Steve Winyard said on the eve of Thursday's landmark challenge: "It's a national scandal that pensioners are being forced into such a vulnerable position by a postcode lottery."
The hearing includes the case of Raymond Liggins, aged 76, from Nuneaton, Jean Middleton, 78, from Kingsbury, and Patricia Meadows, 65, from Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.