Letter : Kidney patients missing out

Sir: It is not only patients with haemophilia who are denied recombinant medication because of its expense ("Is it too much to ask that children with haemophilia get the best and safest treatment?", 23 September).

A significant proportion of patients with chronic renal failure also suffer with a severe anaemia that can be treated with recombinant human erythropoietin. This drug has the potential to greatly improve the health and quality of life of a lot of patients with renal failure, but it is also expensive, and its use is therefore being restricted in some areas.

As with recombinant Factor VIII, this is not experimental medicine we are addressing here, but safe, tried and tested medication that we would all want our patients or loved ones to have. Action is needed.

Dr PADDY GIBSON

Edinburgh