IN the seven years that three early stage drugs for Alzheimer's Disease have been on the market, the York Alzheimer's Society has contacted at least 50 families who have used these drugs for periods from several months to more than three years.

All patients and family carers reported their condition had stabilised and they were able to continue with most daily tasks. Now thousands with Alzheimer's, including more than a thousand in the York area, could be denied drug treatment that works because they are deemed too expensive for the NHS.

If initial guidance by the National Institute of Clinical Evidence (NICE) is not reversed, vulnerable people will be deprived of the only treatment available to them.

This outrageous proposal is yet another example of the NHS failing to take dementia seriously as a medical condition. People with dementia have a degenerative disease of the brain for which there is no cure.

The Alzheimer's Society has seven years of evidence to prove these drugs improve people's quality of life. How can the NHS deny people with dementia a treatment proven to help?

At just £2.50 a day it seems scandalous to argue it is too expensive to help this vulnerable group of society. People with dementia are already a marginalised section, with their long-term care needs forgotten by the NHS. Now, to add insult to injury, a drug treatment proven to work may also be denied them.

The York branch of the Alzheimer's Society is urging NICE to change their guidance before it is finally issued in July.

Gill Myers,

Branch manager,

Alzheimer's Society, Selby and York branch,

The Retreat, York.

Updated: 09:33 Tuesday, March 08, 2005