Mark Pawsey MP has backed calls this week for better awareness, earlier diagnosis and improved management of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) – the UK's leading cause of sight loss .
Mark Pawsey attended the parliamentary launch of Bayer HealthCare’s report on AMD, which highlights the growing numbers of people experiencing preventable sight loss due to the condition.
During the event, Mark took part in a ‘day in the life’ activity, using ‘simspecs’ and an iPad App developed by the Royal National Institute of Blind People. Both tools simulate the effects of suffering from AMD. He tried to complete some routine parliamentary tasks to experience how the condition affects the daily lives of people with AMD.
Mark said:
“It was a sobering experience to realise how AMD impacts the lives of people with AMD, making it so much more difficult to take part in work or social activities. It is particularly worrying that AMD affects so many people in the UK. We know that around 50% of sight loss is avoidable , and yet the number of people with sight loss in the UK is set to double to almost 4 million by 2050 .
Mark continued:
“Clearly much more needs to be done to improve awareness of conditions like AMD and ensure that they are diagnosed and treated as early as possible”.
Mark concluded:
“Here in Rugby at the Hospital of St Cross we have an excellent AMD Unit. Over the recent years I have been fighting for better access to the unit for Rugby residents as due to contractual obligations we had the absurd situation where my constituents were sent out of Rugby for their treatment whilst people from other areas are sent to Rugby for treatment. I have continued to press for a change in this situation and I am delighted that the new Coventry and Rugby Clinical Commission Group are now working with this objective in mind with a view to a new policy being in place allowing Rugby residents to attend the AMD Unit in St Cross in the coming months.”