AQW 31810/22-27


Mr Nick Mathison
Alliance Party
Strangford


Tabled Date: 23/09/2025
Answered On Date: 08/10/2025
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister of Health to detail how he will ensure the MS helpline is fully staffed and accessible to patients requiring advice and support.


Answer:
Services for people with multiple sclerosis (MS) are provided as part of wider Neurology services in each Trust area. There has been detailed engagement with the clinical teams in each Trust over the past number of years with a view to improving the care and treatment available for people with this condition. As part of this engagement, a Service Specification was developed, consistent with NICE Clinical Guidelines for the service, which sets out the requirements for delivering a multi-disciplinary service consistently across the region.
The priorities that were identified from the Service Specification were for all Trusts to have dedicated clinics for people with MS, for each Trust to have dedicated MS nursing staff and for the capacity to be available in each Trust to allow infusion delivered disease modifying treatments (DMTs) to be available locally.
Investments were made over a number of years and each of these priority objectives have been achieved. Colleagues from DoH work closely with HSC Trusts each year to consider the requirements associated with the increasing number of people with MS who are on DMTs. Over £20m is invested across the region in supporting the provision of approved drug treatments to eligible patients.
As part of the arrangement in place for people with MS to access services locally, each of the five Trusts have advice lines for patients under their care to make contact. It is important to note that these advice lines are not an emergency service. People with MS are advised to liaise with their GP, out of hours service or Emergency Department when the advice line is closed and always when the issue is non-MS related.
As services for people with MS have been established locally, support has been provided to allow Trusts to allow patients to make contact between hospital appointments if they have any queries regarding their MS care. The arrangements for receiving and responding to calls will be Trust specific but generally involve administrative staff accepting the initial call or managing messages left for the clinical team and then arranging for the contact to be made with the patient.
The discussions that take place with Trusts each year to consider the requirements associated with increasing numbers of patients with MS will take account of any further support that would be required to ensure timely advice and support is available. Any investment in this or other areas of pressure related to service provision will be subject to resources being available in the context of the current financial pressures facing the HSC.