LAST year the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) issued draft guidance to say that several important drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease should not be available on the NHS due to their cost just £2.50 per person per day.
NICE has now revised this guidance and admitted the drugs can be effective.
However in a cruel compromise they propose to deny them to people in the early stages of the disease.
These drugs are not a cure but are acknowledged to be effective in alleviating some of the symptoms for some people.
It is morally wrong that doctors that doctors may now have to withhold treatment to people who could benefit just because they are not yet deemed sufficiently sick.
We believe that people with Alzheimer's disease should have access to these treatments, which are proven to work, and we will be writing to local MPs to seek their support.
We urge concerned readers to express their views in the same way.
PAULINE WALSH, Chief Officer, Age Concern, Blackburn with Darwen.
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