Comments on: People who lose their sight – macular degeneration

By: Steven_L

Steven_L — Thu, 10 May 2007 18:38:22 +0000

I just wanna say thankyou to the medical science people and their magic injections.

Hopefully one day we’ll have a proper government that make them possible.

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By: Garry Johnson

Garry Johnson — Thu, 10 May 2007 15:27:57 +0000

When I see the number of people being denied treatment and dying in filthy hospitals I have to ask myself why these political incompetents such as Hewitt are not subject to manslaughter proceedings.

If these overpaid, arrogant and incompetent fools want to take responsibility for the welfare of our people, then they should learn to accept responsibility for their incompetence.

But then again, what can anyone expect from the likes of New Labour, a mishmash of Marxists, commies and their fellow travellers, union dinasaurs, civil rights lawyers and ex-council politicos.

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By: j. wilson

j. wilson — Mon, 07 May 2007 00:24:44 +0000

OOOh my goodness I think that a certain politician [Ed: moderated]

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By: Paula

Paula — Sat, 05 May 2007 00:50:24 +0000

Nice one Boris. My Mother’s just had her second Lucentis injection today – her sight has actually improved, she read 20 more letters on the chart than she did last month. And, amazingly, there is some sight returning to her left eye – she lost vision in that one 4 years ago due to dry AMD. I was ready for the battle re payment for the treatment – I would have taken this one to court but luckily they ok’d the treatment on the NHS. While we were waiting for that I had written to several private hospitals, getting prices for her treatment if we had to pay (Which would have involved selling her property and finding her a council house – thus buying her eight years of sight before the money ran out). The Yorkshire Eye Hospital’s prices are as follows:

Each Lucentis injection is £1775
Lucentis injections are normally given at monthly intervals for 3 months (not so, the Lucentis label states 24 months)

Each Avastin injection is £700
Avastin injections are normally given at six weekly intervals for 18 weeks (If this isn’t a trial I don’t know what is – its proved to be just as effective as Lucentis).

They’re using Avastin and are really raking in a profit from it considering it costs about £1.50 a vile or thereabouts and administering it takes about 2 hours in total – if the hospital get their act together. What an earner that one is!

No wonder the NHS is in such a state, its pathetic really.

The dosage my Mother will be given is 1 per month for 4 months (some say 3) and then 1 every 3 months for an unspecified time.

My only worry is, with her sight improving so well, that when they reduce the dose the improved vision will deteriorate to baseline – as is the outcome of Genentechs trials when dosage is reduced to one per three months. What I’m expecting to happen is that the NHS will tell us then that my Mother “Isn’t responding” to it and will stop further treatment – I know that Genentech recommend dosage of 1 per month – the trial ran for 24 months. It’ll be devastating for her to lose her sight again. With Avastin, of course, she could be treated forever more and it needn’t be a worry. But some fat cat pharmaceutical company would lose out so I suppose my Mother and thousands like her will just have to go blind. Our Government is spineless so wont intervene, not even for those that voted them in (I didn’t).

If you want to read the Lucentis label you can get it here http://www.fda.gov/cder/foi/label/2006/125156lbl.pdf

The whole situation makes me sick. I’m pleased that my Mother is getting the treatment but I’m worried that the recommendations for administration wont be followed for cost cutting reasons – thereby causing her to lose any sight that she’s regained. And all of this could be avoided by administering the cheaper version, Avastin, the same drug that Lucentis is derived from.

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By: russellg

russellg — Wed, 02 May 2007 00:00:26 +0000

The sooner the British health system stops treating symptoms with little regard to the cause – the better.

Fortunately, it is only the intelligent who see our drugs-dependent, profit-motivated system for the Blackadder-like joke it can be. At its worst, which unfortunately it is far too often, it is truly frightening. At its best the NHS is superb, the best in the world for treating serious injury.

Such unreliable state monopolies only serve to sharpen the wits of those who can see things clearly – we have much to learn from others.

GPs are generally interested in not seeing patients return, hence the National Sickness Service, only saved by spending boatloads when once sinple problems are allowed (even encouraged) to develop into serious trauma.

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By: John S M Roberts, O.B.E.

John S M Roberts, O.B.E. — Tue, 01 May 2007 21:37:04 +0000

Boris: extraordinarily good chap. Should be PM one day. UK desperately needs men of Boris’s calibre in the House of Commons. Wish Boris was our MP here in the Lewes constituency present incumbent Norman Baker – first class nutter who believes Dr D Kell murdered by Iraqis!! Is writing a book about it! May God preserve us and deliver Boris unto us! Our saviour. Lucky Henley on Thames.

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By: jaq

jaq — Tue, 01 May 2007 19:47:05 +0000

PaulD – but that’s just it – that’s my point: doctors are people, not angels from above. They are subject to deciding treatment on personality (and social status) or some are not, you don’t know. I just think we should remember they are people, and there’s good and bad in every group.

I’m so sorry to hear about your mother, that must have been very difficult. My heart goes out to you.

I also think diagnosos and treatment can be fashionable: in the 1970’s women tended to ’suffer from their nerves’ for which valium was prescribed. My fathers friends wife was diagnosed as such after complaining of headaches. She dropped down dead a fortnight later with a brain tumour. It could be argued that nothing could have been done with these cases. But when I think of my healthy, beautiful friend, who was ignored by her GP after surgery and died 3 days later from septicaemia, I want to hit the GP very hard. I want to shout at him every morning. I want to staple a picture of my friend to his bedhead, to his bathroom mirror. Because men like him will be sympathised with, will be supported, will explain it away, will probably forget.

She was just 19. The GP wasn’t blamed as the family were just too traumatised. It broke the marriage and they had another child. I know it happens but you just don’t expect to bury your children. It could have been prevented.

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By: PaulD

PaulD — Tue, 01 May 2007 18:01:20 +0000

…a doctor once explained to me that their motivation is to make patients go away, not to cure them. Jaq

Some years ago my mother, who suffered depression, also developed pains in her back and neck. She was, admittedly, a bit of a nuisance with her GP but I never expected the call asking me to attend a meeting at her house.

The GP announced that Mum was to be removed from the practice register for being excessively demanding and taking too much of the doctors’ time.

Two months later she died, riddled with cancer. Her increasing pain was clearly an immediate symptom of the illness.

The letter I sent that GP was probably the nastiest thing I have written in my life. What was the point of taking it any further? She was dead and out of her misery.

I never got a formal reply but did, by coincidence, bump into him at a drinks party some weeks later. The shock on his face told me the events weighed heavily on him.

All he could manage was, “Paul, what can I say…?”

I told him “Nothing. Just learn from it.”

Jaq, there are good doctors and bad doctors. We shouldn’t cast them all in the same mould. Our current GP and his associates are superb – it’s impossible to fault them.

Mother’s GP has probably gone the same way as her by now. Can’t say I’m sorry.

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By: JG

JG — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 16:53:24 +0000

Maybe it’s time to take the NHS out of the hands of political interference? Brown has hinted at this, but it may well be a smokescreen for less accountability. On the other hand, if the right people really are brought in to make the decisions free from the goons at the DoH, maybe it would be a good thing…
http://www.pickinglosers.co.uk/blog_entry/jg/20070430/a_step_in_the_right_direction

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By: Nasrin Azadeh

Nasrin Azadeh — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 18:19:51 +0000

John: ‘But I agree that we could find a way to licence drugs differently’.

As well as machinery that works out for MPs to expedite response and action reflecting the voice of local.

As for my sufferings a simple immediate endorsement of my statement, by my local MP to the British Consulate in istanbul, can end my misfortune in foreign lands.

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