Pendle MP, Gordon Prentice, is backing a call for better access to treatment for rheumatoid arthritis sufferers. The MP spoke out after quizzing the Chief Executive of  the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, Ailsa Bosworth, at Westminster on World Arthritis Day (15 October).

Commenting afterwards the MP said: “Four hundred thousand people in the UK live with this condition. It is an incredibly painful disease that can cause severe disability and, uncontrolled, can shorten life expectancy. In most cases it starts to affect people between 40 and 60 but there are as many as 12000 children under 16 living with the disease.”

“Many sufferers have to give up work early. Surveys have shown that people feel less depressed about their condition if they can stay in work but fewer than half say they have been offered support to stay in employment . Clearly more needs to be done to support people with this condition in the workplace effectively.”

The MP added: “I am also concerned that guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence is limiting the range of drug treatments available. The costs to the UK associated with the condition, around £4 billion a year including work-related disability, must surely be taken into consideration.”

Photo: Gordon Prentice with Ailsa Bosworth at the World Arthritis day event.