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MS NURSE UPDATE 22 November 2001
report from Pam Little
The Primary Care Trust is now considering making a bid for an MS Nurse under the MS Society’s MS Nurse Fund. Initially this will be for a part-time MS specialist nurse.
Approaches for financial support have been made to all the local MS charities including the Hertfordshire MS Therapy Centre and the three MSS branches based in the area covered by the East and North Herts Hospital Trust. The committee of the Stevenage Branch have agreed to reserve £3000 of the Branch’s funds towards funding the nurse. This is £1000 for each of the three years of the MS Society’s scheme. North Herts MSS Branch has pledged £3000 per year for each of the three years making a total pledge of £9000. In the event of the PCT agreeing to employ a full-time nurse, North Herts Branch would be willing to put £6000 per year into the fund. The committee of Welwyn Garden City &
Hatfield Branch have yet to meet, but we are hopeful they will also put £1000 per year into the pot. The Therapy Centre Management Committee have agreed in principle to make a contribution but have yet to name a figure. So together with the money provided by the MS Society’s Nurse Fund, £5000 per year for a part-time nurse, MS charities would be willing to put at least £10,000 per year towards our nurse, the balance being met by the PCT’s.
The Parkinsons’ Disease Society and the Motor Neurone Disease Society are also working towards specialist nurses for their members and it is possible that they will also be able to provide funding towards their own specialist nurse. Working together we are highlighting the need for specialist nurses for neurological conditions.
Lindsay Goward and I shall be meeting with the North Herts & Stevenage PCT early in December when we shall hopefully start to take the bid for the specialist MS Nurse
Cannabis spray ‘eases chronic pain’
Patients in pain from multiple sclerosis, spinal injuries and nerve damage have had their lives transformed by cannabis spray, scientists have said.
The breakthrough was down to the method of delivering the cannabis as a medicinal aerosol under the tongue. According to the experts, It has proved dramatically successful. Reporting on the first study to look at the effectiveness of an extract of the drug,
neurologist Dr William Nortcutt told the British Association: “Some patients have told us it has totally removed their pain. Others are able to sleep at night for the first time.”
Dr Nortcutt, who was in charge or the trial at James Paget Hospital in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, added: “The spray takes about half an hour to take effect once it has been sprayed under the tongue.” Of the 23 patients using it, only three had not experienced relief from pain. Around a third had reported astonishing levels of recovery. The trial
involved cannabis plants grown with a Home Office licence. GW Pharmaceuticals, the company which commissioned the research said it could have a prescription version of the spray available by 2003