English people living with a rare eye condition may be forced to move to Scotland or Wales to “save their sight”, the country’s leading charity for the blind has said, after the NHS refused to fund routine access to treatments.
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) said it was considering legal action over NHS England’s decision not to recommended routine use of the drugs Humira and Remicade for patients with a severe form of the inflammatory eye condition, uveitis.
Both drugs are routinely available in Scotland and Wales and their use is standard practice in many other countries. A trial of Humira for one group of paediatric uveitis patients, taking place in the UK, was stopped early because overwhelming evidence of the drugs’ benefit meant it was deemed unethical to continue giving some children placebo.
However, NHS England concluded there was “not sufficient evidence” to recommend routine use.
Full story in The Independent 25 July 2015