Sunbed remedy that ‘could save NHS millions’
TREATING severe skin problems with UV light rather than creams, pills and injections can save the NHS millions of pounds, Scots experts said yesterday.
Phototherapy for common diseases such as eczema and psoriasis costs a fraction of treatment with expensive drugs, according to researchers.
Eczema affects one in 12 adults while around 2 per cent of the population have psoriasis. The most severe forms of these diseases can blight the lives of sufferers.
Dr John Foerster, of Dundee University’s school of medicine, said: ‘UV [ultraviolet] light treatment is effective, is less invasive and has fewer side-effects than alternative therapies, and can deliver massive cost savings.’
He added: ‘Popping a pill to treat skin conditions may seem a cheap treatment but staff are still required to carry out blood checks in a lab.’
Steroid creams are commonly prescribed for skin diseases but can cause serious side effects and can fail to bring the conditions under control. Patients may then be referred for more intensive treatment, which could include pills, injections or phototherapy.
Dr Foerster said: ‘It would be fantastic if everyone had the opportunity to try something that circumvents the need for any laboratory monitoring and potential side-effects in the first place.’
Phototherapy involves patients being exposed to safe, controlled doses of UV radiation. The equipment used is similar to sunbeds.
Patients are treated in hospital out-patient departments in cabins with fluorescent light bulbs.
Natural sunlight has been known to be beneficial for certain skin disorders for many years, by reducing inflammation.
It is the ultraviolet part of the radiation produced by the sun that is used in phototherapy, in particular the UVB wavelengths. High street sunbeds are not recommended for skin conditions because they use UVA light.
The research – published in the British Journal of Dermatology – found phototherapy costs around £250 per patient per year, compared with up to £12,000 a year for the most expensive drugs.
The researchers looked at different phototherapy clinics over the past nine years and examined the costs involved in delivering the treatment. They concluded the service was ‘phenomenally cheap’ compared to some of the more expensive drugs used to treat stubborn cases of skin disease.
Dr Foerster said: ‘Injectable drugs can be effective but are extremely expensive, so avoiding the need for this, or even for delaying it by a year, can save millions.
‘Each treatment only takes up a very small percentage of the staff members’ overall workload compared to how many treatments are given out.’
The researchers believe misconceptions about the cost of delivering phototherapy and its effectiveness mean that many areas across the UK are not well served by such NHS treatment facilities.
The Dundee team had previously shown that three-quarters of patients experienced significant improvements after phototherapy and the need for steroid creams was reduced by 25 per cent.
This suggests many patients can delay or avoid altogether the need for oral or injection treatments, which can cause side-effects such as gastric upset, liver dysfunction and infections.