All primary care trusts are funding photodynamic therapy treatment for patients with both the wholly classic and predominantly classic forms of age-related macular degeneration.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is currently carrying out an appraisal of Lucentis and Macugen for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration and final guidance is due to be published in August 2007. However, NICE will only publish appraisal guidance on Lucentis if it receives a licence from the European Medicines Agency.
Where guidance from NICE is not yet available, PCTs are expected to apply local arrangements for the managed introduction of new technologies. These arrangements should include an assessment of the available evidence.
Those diagnosed with macular disease and treated as in-patients are shown in the table. The table shows the number of in-patient admissions during 2004-05 to national health service hospitals in England for those whose primary diagnosis was degeneration of the macular and posterior pole.
The data has been produced by former strategic health authority area and reflects NHS hospitals in the area. The numbers do not reflect residents of any one area but will include cross boundary referrals, depending on specialised services commissioning arrangements for each area.
SHA of treatment Number of patients Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire 168 Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire 16 Essex 59 North West London 18 North Central London 317 North East London 21 South East London 66 South West London * Northumberland, Tyne and Wear 54 County Durham and Tees Valley 39 North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire 69 West Yorkshire 140 Cumbria and Lancashire 103 Greater Manchester 150 Cheshire and Merseyside 209 Thames Valley 244 Hampshire and Isle of Wight 139 Kent and Medway 40 Surrey and Sussex 336 Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire 376 South West Peninsula 176 Dorset and Somerset 319 South Yorkshire 46 Trent 187 Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland 29 Shropshire and Staffordshire 284 Birmingham and the Black Country 174 West Midlands South 33 Note: Due to reasons of confidentiality, figures between 1 and 5 have been suppressed and replaced with “*” (an asterisk). Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, The Information Centre for health and social care