A YOUNG man with Muscular Dystrophy has backed a campaign to get better services for sufferers in Oxfordshire.

Specialist clinical posts at the Oxford Muscle and Nerve Centre based at the John Radcliffe Hospital are not funded by the the NHS.

Instead a charity, Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, picks up the bill, It says it’s invested around £100,000 a year in services but will no longer to do so beyond March 2010.

Now the charity wants the South Central Strategic Health Authority to fully review services across all the Primary Care Trusts in its region, including Oxfordshire.

Robert Meadowcroft, director of policy and campaigns at the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, said: “The Muscular Dystrophy Campaign has invested half a million pounds in essential clinical posts in the South Central NHS region over the last five years.

“Unfortunately, due to lack of funding in the current climate, we are not in a position to continue this support beyond next March.

“This means that the vital posts of regional care adviser and a part-time adult specialist physiotherapist at the Oxford Muscle and Nerve Centre are at risk.

“We are calling on the South Central Specialised Commissioning Group to carry out a thorough review of neuromuscular services as matter of urgency.

“At the recent launch of our South Central Muscle Group in Oxford, families told us of their ongoing battles to receive basic essential services, such as physiotherapy and hydrotherapy on the NHS.”

James Lewis, from Farmoor, has been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, which causes muscles to progressively weaken.

Mr Lewis, 21, who works in the fundraising office of Helen and Douglas House hospice, said he would welcome the review.

He added: “At present I have private physiotherapy once a week, which I pay for myself, but other than that, I have no treatment.

“I am in my wheelchair for about 12 hours a day, and because of the constant pressure, it gets very uncomfortable.

“Hydrotherapy would be a great help as it would relieve the pressure and allow me to move around much more freely.

“Although I go to a swimming pool most weeks, the water is colder, so I can’t stay in for too long.

“There are hydrotherapy facilities around, but they either seem to have limited access, or are too expensive.”

Nobody at the South Central Strategic Health Authority was able to comment.

awilliams@oxfordmail.co.uk