After almost 120 weeks deliberation, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence ruled that photo dynamic therapy (PDT) should be available on the NHS for sufferers from wet age-related macular degeneration, a common form of sight loss, especially over 50.

Dr Liam Fox, shadow health secretary, said: "This is yet another example of the gap between the government's rhetoric and reality. NICE was created to bring new treatment more quickly to patients but instead it has become an arms length rationing mechanism for ministers."

Forum Response: Royal National Institute of the Blind

Steve Winyard, head of public policy at RNIB, said: "We are now calling on the Department of Health and the National Health Service to act immediately to ensure guidance is implemented within NICE's 3-month deadline.

"Every year 21,000 people in the UK develop wet AMD and NICE estimates that 7,500 of these will be suitable for PDT treatment. Therefore for every week that implementation of new NICE guidance is delayed, another 150 people risk losing their sight. However, the cost of providing a PDT service for suitable patients is less than 0.01 per cent of an average PCT's budget.

"We are pleased that guidance is now available, but disappointed that it has taken some 120 weeks to get there. This delay is partly due to the fact that the only way patient groups are allowed to have any dialogue with NICE is through their formal appeal process. This meant we had no choice but to appeal against NICE's early appraisal documents in order to correct some fundamental errors.

"One of the reasons it is so important that we increase awareness of AMD is because in some cases, if caught early, this condition is treatable. Patients across Europe and the rest of the world have had access to this treatment for the last four years and the UK has been left behind whilst NICE deliberated. Guidance must be implemented quickly if we are to care properly for people affected by this devastating eye disease."