§ Mr. DhandaTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the National Institute for Clinical Excellence guidance on the use of photodynamic therapy for age-related macular degeneration within the NHS in England and Wales is implemented as soon as possible; and when he expects the implementation to be completed. [142980]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonImplementation of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance is underway. Patients are already receiving photodynamic therapy (PDT) on the national health service and we expect implementation of the NICE guidance to have been completed by July 2004. We are working with the NHS to facilitate the implementation and to give patients increased access to PDT during this time.
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NHS hospital and community health service: All ambulance staff in England and each specified Trust as at 30 September 2002 Whole time equivalent All ambulance staff Ambulance manager Ambulance paramedic Ambulance personnel Ambulance trainee England 17,076 598 7,022 7,357 2,098 5GT Great Yarmouth PCT 0 0 0 0 0 5KC Durham and Chester-le-Street PCT 1 0 0 1 0 5LA Kensington and Chelsea PCT 4 0 1 3 0 5LC Westminster PCT 0 0 0 0 0 5MV Wolverhampton City PCT 13 13 0 0 0 RA9 South Devon Health Care NHS Trust 2 0 2 0 0 RBI Avon Ambulance Service NHS Trust 356 4 189 90 73 RB4 Essex Ambulance Service NHS Trust 566 34 220 251 62 RB5 Gloucestershire Ambulance Services NHS Trust 216 21 97 77 20 RB6 Mersey Regional Ambulance Service NHS Trust 758 7 280 365 106 RB7 Staffordshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust 314 12 203 96 3 RB8 South Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance and Paramedic Services NHS Trust 459 54 130 262 14 RBX Lincolnshire Ambulance and Health Transport Service NHS Trust 396 18 181 137 60 RE6 Cumbria Ambulance Service NHS Trust 272 7 120 113 34 RFU Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Ambulance and Paramedic Service NHS Trust 504 0 348 156 0 NICE have recommended that PDT should be made available to individuals who have a confirmed diagnosis of classic with no occult subfoveal choroidal neovascularisation (CNV), and best-corrected visual acuity of 6/60 or better. PDT is not recommended for the treatment of people with predominantly classic subfoveal CNV (that is, 50 per cent. or more of the entire area of the lesion is classic CNV but some occult CNV is present) except as part of ongoing or new clinical studies.
Department of Health officials held a meeting on 4 November 2003 with specialised services commissioners who are leading the implementation process. It was made clear to specialised services commissioners that full implementation is to be complete by July 2004 and that it is expected that services that have the capacity to increase more quickly should do so. It was also made clear that patients with suspected classic with no occult CNV, for whom treatment has been recommended, should be treated wherever capacity exists to do so.