Drugs that transform the lives of Multiple Sclerosis patients have finally been made available on the NHS in Oxfordshire.

Not all patients will qualify, but for 38-year-old Elaine Hall, it is not a moment too soon.

Mrs Hall, a permanent resident of St Luke's Nursing Home, Latimer Road, Headington, Oxford, has been battling MS for a decade.

She cannot walk or use her lower limbs, she cannot feed herself, she has only partial sight and she slurs her speech when she is tired. When Mrs Hall learned about the new wonder drug she was angry it was not prescribed in Oxfordshire but available in neighbouring Northamptonshire.

She even wrote to Prime Minister Tony Blair to demand it be prescribed nationally.

She said: "I think it is wrong that this treatment is not funded on a national basis.

"If the disability of people with MS progresses, social services have to pick up the bill. "The amount of financial help provided by social services to look after MS sufferers is quite considerable, so it seems very short-sighted of health authorities and the Government not to fund the only current treatment of MS on a national basis.

"I had relapsing, remitting MS throughout the 1980s, and perhaps if Beta Interferon had been prescribed to me it would have prevented the MS progressing to the extent it has now.

"There are people now who would benefit enormously from this treatment and it is being denied to them." Mrs Hall has researched the background to MS since her official diagnosis in 1989.

Oxfordshire Health Authority's Priorities Forum has agreed to pay £200,000 to treat about 20 cases of MS a year with Beta Interferon - six years after it came on to the market. Trials conducted before it was agreed showed it to be cost-effective.

A health authority spokesman said trials showed Beta Interferon reduced the relapse rate of MS sufferers and slowed the progression of their disability. A number of patients have already been assessed as being suitable and those who fulfil the criteria for being treated will be referred to Oxford's Radcliffe Infirmary or the Horton Hospital, Banbury, for further assessment.

Patients fulfilling the criteria will be over 18 and under 50 years old, and should have either relapsing remitting MS with at least two significant relapses in the last two years.

Or they should have secondary progressive MS and be able to walk at least 20m without aid and rest.

Story date: Friday 09 April

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