Born in 1946 and brought up in Cupar, Fife, I was educated at the local school - 
Stevenson demands answers from Ministers
SNP Depute Shadow Minister for Health, Stewart Stevenson MSP, has challenged the Executive to explain why a pensioner in his constituency was asked to pay thousands of pounds if he wanted a new treatment as part of efforts to save his sight.
Mr Stevenson commented:
“Mr Robert Ritchie lives in Peterhead, and suffers from an eye condition called age-related macular degeneration, which is steadily limiting his powers of sight.
“A new treatment of injections to the eye is offered for this condition, photodynamic therapy. However, Grampian University Hospitals NHS Trust is limiting free treatment to people with a particular form of this condition – “classical” CNV macular degeneration.
“Because Mr Ritchie’s particular form of the condition is “occult” CNV macular degeneration, he has been offered the treatment - but only if he is prepared to pay the cost.
“This is a distinction which not all Health authorities in Scotland preserve. In Dumfries and Galloway, for instance, Mr Ritchie’s condition would have been treated for free.
“The cost is considerable, and Mr Ritchie has been quoted £850 per injection, with no guarantees about how many injections might be needed. He has been warned that he would almost certainly have to pay several thousand pounds, money which, as a pensioner, he does not have.
“Mr Ritchie’s condition has continued to worsen, and he would like to preserve what sight he now has left.
“As far as I can establish, Mr Ritchie is being prevented from receiving treatment not on medical, but cost grounds. No patient should be put in a position where they are asked by the NHS to find thousands of pounds if they want to save their sight, particularly when this is clearly a policy which only applies in some parts of Scotland.
“This is a totally unacceptable situation, and one which I have now tabled parliamentary questions about. I urge the Scottish Executive to step in, as the NHS in Grampian have already cited lack of central funding as the main reason why they are charging patients for this treatment.”
