WELL done Cheshire County Council! At last commonsense seems to be making a stand!
The West Cheshire resource Group for Older People and Carers fully supported the Alzheimer’s Society when it took action to try to reverse the policy adopted by NICE not to prescribe these beneficial drugs for treatment in the early stages of the disease.
Unfortunately, very limited success was achieved at that time and patients in these early stages were still not prescribed the drugs.
The realisation seems to have dawned that the relatively minimal cost of prescribing the drugs in these early stages might delay intervention and even greater costs later than would be incurred to the caring professions and authorities (GPs, District Nurses, Therapists, PCTs, Social Services, Residential/Nursing Homes), all needed because the progress of the disease had been more speedy than it might have been.
Apart from the financial commonsense, what about the sufferers and the carers involved?
Many spouses, family members and carers provide care for their loved ones at little or no cost to the authorities. They see their loved ones deteriorating more rapidly than they might otherwise do so when many might benefit from these drugs. Not only is this cruel, it often causes the health and well-being of the carers to deteriorate and this too may have a financial “knock-on” effect if the carer also needs caring for.
The West Cheshire Resource Group fully supports the Cheshire County Council in its actions and hopefully, so too will all of the Members of Parliament that they have written to who, after all, are elected to represent the views of the electorate.
PAULINE BLACKWOOD
Facilitator - West Cheshire Older People’s Resource Group
