The Great NetXperiment!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/politics_show/6316155.stm

Multiple Sclerosis is the most common nerve disorder among young adults. It’s incurable.

And the highest incidence of MS on the British mainland is in Cornwall.

Yet there is only one specialist nurse helping deal with
the condition in the whole of the county - and even that job was due to
have been scrapped this month.

…..

“We have to raise £60,000 per annum through charitable
donations and out of that we’re having to pay £1,500 for regulation,”
said Paul O’Hara, the chairman of the Exeter MS Therapy Centre.

“That is going to triple over the next two years and
that’s money that could be spent on therapies. We think it’s grossly
unfair and obviously what we want to do is get that amount reduced or
in fact completely annulled.”

The Healthcare Commission says it is currently consulting on the scale of fees for next year.

The MS therapy centres say they weren’t invited to take part.

“It’s totally wrong isn’t it really that these people
are already with an ailment there’s no cure for and then people who are
helping them are having to provide money not for the actual centres but
for a government department,” says Peter Owens, chairman of MS National
Therapy Centres.

The fund-raising will continue both to keep Exeter up and running and to keep alive the dream of MS sufferers in Cornwall.

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Comment: I don’t know that Australia has MS based specialist practitioners, I should really research it, but the mention of using hyperbaric chanmbers as a therapy is something I am quite sure I have never been offered nor seen in great use here. I note that it is not on our list of supported therapies by the government health insurer due to research showing it has “little supporting evidence of theraputic value” . This is also the opinion of the MS Society locally and there are no chambers in NSW the state where I live. But I also note that in the Western Asutralian hospital services it does not come under the normal chargeable rates for a contractor medical specialist. Hmmmm.

Interesting that there is such a differing view on this treatment.