§ Mr. BaronTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate the Government have made of the number of people who will be affected by the Government's decision to extend implementation of National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidance to make photodynamic therapy available to those suffering from age-related macular degeneration. [142628]
§ Ms Rosie Winterton[holding answer 8 December 2003]: On the basis of limited epidemiological data the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) 594W estimated that each year in England and Wales there may be 5,000 to 7,500 new cases of predominantly classic subfoveal choroidal neovascularisation (CNV) associated with wet age-related macular degeneration. However, they noted, there is a high degree of uncertainty about this estimate.
It was the Department's assessment, informed by advice from NICE, that the national health service would be unable to implement the guidance in full within the usual three-month period. We have previously varied the direction on five occasions when it was required to implement effectively the guidance to provide the service to patients.
Patients are already receiving photodynamic therapy (PDT) on the NHS and we are committed to working with the NHS to facilitate implementation by July 2004. We want to see eligible patients benefiting from effective treatment: this is why we are implementing the NICE guidance as quickly as possible and have asked the NHS to ensure that patients with suspected classic with no occult CNV are treated wherever capacity exists to do so.