THE UK's main charity for the blind has praised North-East health bosses for agreeing to fund a new sight-saving drug ahead of national guidance.

The decision means the North-East is the first NHS region to agree to fund the drug, called Lucentis, which can save the sight of patients with a condition called wet age-related macular degeneration.

But the Royal National Institute for the Blind criticised the "foot-dragging" stance of other primary care trusts - including North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust - which are waiting until the full guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, or Nice, is published in June.

The decision means that patients in County Durham, Teesside, Wearside, Tyneside and Northumberland, who need Lucentis to save their sight, will get the £21,000 course of injections they need over two years, without delay.

However, just a few miles south, patients in North Yorkshire will have to wait until they have lost most of the sight in one eye before they can get the drug on the NHS to treat their other eye.

The two-tier situation has been created by Nice's announcement in early April that it intends to recommend that all PCTs in England and Wales should agree to fund Lucentis on the NHS.

While some PCTs, including all the PCTs in the North-East, have agreed to pay for the drug now, some trusts are chosing to wait until the full guidance is published in the summer.

Chris Reed, who chairs the North East Specialised Commissioning Group, said: "Although the definitive guidance from Nice is still awaited, we feel that there is now sufficient information available for the treatment to be available for patients whichever eye is affected."

A spokesman for the RNIB said: "PCTS should be funding Lucentis now. Some are dragging their feet and waiting until formal guidance in June but patients don't have that luxury, they need to be treated immediately."

A spokeswoman for North Yorkshire and York PCT said it was standing by criteria adopted throughout Yorkshire and Humber last July, which involved giving treatment "to the better seeing eye only,"

until changes in Nice guidelines.

It pointed out that it plans to invest a further £2m in Lucentis over the next year.