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 NEWS ROUND UP

 

LETCHWORTH MS THERAPY CENTRE WEBSITE

Is this their Web Master ??

The Letchworth Therapy Centre has recently re-launched their website at www.hertsmstherapy.org.uk Bristling with information and in a really easy to read format this site is well worth a visit.

 

News from "TeaMSpirit" ™

New Physiotherapy Programme to be developed

A new programme, which will complement the MS Nurse Fund, is just beginning. The MS Society is working in partnership with MS Relief, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists and the Institute of Neurology, to develop flagship physiotherapy services for people with MS. As MS Relief is based in the North of England, the programme will initially be targeted there. This is good news because we know many branches invest in physiotherapy, yet evidence of effectiveness is also needed. This programme should help fill the evidence gap.

The aims of the new programme are:

  • to sponsor the delivery of quality, specialist physiotherapy services for people with MS, which meet the standards set out by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
  • to evaluate the specialist physiotherapy services that are sponsored through the programme
  • to improve knowledge and skills of physiotherapists and other health professionals about
  • effective physiotherapy for people with MS, by disseminating the action research and evaluation findings
  • to contribute to the longer-term development of appropriate community based and hospital based rehabilitation services for people with MS

The approach of the project is to give grants to providers for specialist physiotherapy services, in hospital or community settings. These services will be evaluated by an independent researcher, who will work closely with the provider.

Expressions of interest have been invited from providers, in the NHS and invited from providers, in the NHS and not-for-profit sector. A selection of these will be invited to submit full proposals, which will then be reviewed by the partners, and grant funding agreed for up to four services. These should be up and running by early 2002.

 

‘Your campaign efforts have been important’

You will no doubt be aware by now that NICE has confirmed its provisional view, which is that beta interferons and glatiramer acetate should only be prescribed on the NHS to those already receiving the drugs. The Policy & Campaigns Team is now busy preparing a response to this. We have also lined up a meeting with officials at the Department of Health to discuss some of the issues raised by NICE in their provisional view. The Society appreciates that this is a very testing time for many

people in the MS community. Please be assured that we are continuing to press our views forcefully in the NICE process and to speak out on behalf of those who would benefit from the drugs.

We want to stress just how important the efforts of individuals have been in helping to maintain the public and political profile of this campaign. Every meeting held with elected representatives and every letter sent to them has really helped to keep the issue live. Regional media coverage of the

latest leak and the provisional view has been good, so it’s encouraging to see that all the groundwork laid by people in the MS community, in building relationships with their local press, has paid off. Thanks again for all your support and persistence

"TeamSpirit is a monthly publication sent to Branch officers by the MS Society"

MS SOCIETY COMMENT ON LATEST N.I.C.E. VERDICT LEAK

Commenting on the leak of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence’s latest provisional verdict on beta interferons and glatiramer acetate, Peter Cardy, chief executive of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, said: “If the leaked information is correct, we are dismayed but not entirely surprised. We shall continue to press for the verdict to be reversed. As the appraisal process has lurched erratically on, it has become obvious that the cost-effectiveness measures NICE has used are just too crude to assess treatments for a long-term and highly complex disease like MS.

NICE is relying heavily on new techniques which are not yet up to the job, ignoring the increasing weight of positive patient experience among those who have the treatments while thousands more are forced to wait on the sidelines.

How much longer must their agony go on as month by month more of them become too disabled to qualify?

Surely it is time for Secretary of State Alan Milburn to step in to resolve a situation which has made a shameful mockery of the Government’s pledge to end the lottery of care?”