Fears over drugs funding for rare diseases

Patients who suffer from rare diseases could be denied access to high-cost drug treatments in the future because of changes to NHS funding, a group of MPs has warned.

The Parliamentary Group for Muscular Dystrophy said it was concerned about the issue after the budget for treating rare diseases in England was merged into the overall NHS budget.

Scotland has a fund in place for the so called "orphan drugs" until April 2014.

A UK-wide strategy for rare diseases will be published this year.

Branwen Jeffreys reports.