PATIENTS with multiple sclerosis are being told that they cannot have drugs to prevent their disease from getting worse because the NHS cannot afford them.

Ministers have insisted that staff layoffs and hospital deficits have had no effect on patient care. But this is untrue, according to Mike Boggild, consultant neurologist at the Walton Centre in Liverpool. He says that he knows of 50-100 MS patients who have been told they cannot have the drugs, even though under an agreement reached in 2002 ministers promised that they would be provided to all those who qualified.

The MS Society said that some patients had been told they would have to wait a year before being prescribed a drug, while others had had their assessments delayed so they were not on a waiting list.

Tom Elkins, of the MS Society, said the problems were greatest in Staffordshire, Sheffield and Wales. He added: “These drugs can prevent disability and there are very clearly defined eligibility criteria. But people are being told they can’t have them because the NHS hasn’t the money to pay for them. We’re back to a postcode lottery. To get the most benefit, patients need these drugs as soon as their illness is diagnosed, not a year later.”

Dr Boggild is co-leader of the risk-sharing scheme under which the drugs are provided. This was set up in 2002 after the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence ruled that the drugs were not cost-effective. The manufacturers share the risk of providing the drugs. If the drugs do not do what they promise, the NHS pays less for them. Under the scheme, the drugs should be guaranteed for those who are eligible. But Dr Boggild says that many patients are being blocked.

“It is nothing like as bad as before the risk-sharing agreement was reached, when thousands were being denied the drugs,” he said. “But the promises made by ministers are being flouted in some places. No patient newly diagnosed with MS should be made to wait.”

One of the worst areas was Staffordshire, where the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust announced last week that it was shedding up to 1,000 jobs. The Department of Health said that the trust planned to reduce costs through improved efficiency, without cutting patient services.

Andrew Colgan, 37, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, is an MS sufferer who has been told that he cannot have the drugs but was assessed in November and told he was suitable.

“I saw two MS nurses and two registrars, and they were all very apologetic,” he said yesterday. “They said ‘you are suitable, but the Primary Care Trust has withdrawn funding, so we can’t prescribe the drugs’. Maybe I’ll get them next year.”

Mr Colgan qualified as a marine scientist and worked as a teacher but has had to give up work because of his condition. The cuts at North Staffs hospital have also affected him, as he was one of the patients treated there with intravenous steroids.

“The ward that caters for this is one of the ones hit by the rendundancies,” he said.

However, he is entitled to treatment and was promised it under the risk-sharing agreement. “Sometimes I think they are just waiting for the start of next financial year,” he said. “Maybe I’ll get it then.”

The Department of Health said: “We have been assured they are trying to get the drugs to new patients in Staffordshire as soon as they can.”

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