Multiple Sclerosis: Health Services

(asked on 15th July 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support his Department is providing to local NHS services to improve the care of people with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.


Answered by
Helen Whately Portrait
Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 23rd July 2020

In order to improve the care and outcomes for people with progressive neurological conditions, such as secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), NHS England and NHS Improvement produced a progressive neurological conditions RightCare toolkit, in collaboration with key stakeholders such as the MS Trust and the MS Society. This toolkit supports systems to understand the priorities in care for people living with various progressive neurological conditions, in line with best practice guidelines.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline ‘Multiple sclerosis in adults: management’, updated in 2019 sets out best practice on the diagnosis, treatment, care and support of people MS. On secondary progressive MS, the guidance sets out that “While a variety of symptomatic treatments is available, progression in secondary progressive MS is currently intractable, and immunomodulatory strategies used for relapse remitting MS have not proven effective when extended into secondary progressive MS.”

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