The Ontario goverment has formed an advisory panel to support patients and the Ontario physicians working with them following CCSVI treatment abroad. The announced regarding the panel has been met with mixed messages.
Yesterday, an article published by MIKE BEITZ, titled “MS patient panel mulled” shows one MSer’s supprt for the program.
“The creation of a provincial advisory panel to support patients who have travelled abroad for a controversial treatment for multiple sclerosis is a step in the right direction, according to one Stratford woman who has undergone the procedure.
The provincial government announced last week it would establish an expert advisory group to provide advice on followup care and treatment for people with MS who return to Ontario after undergoing the Chronic Cerebro-Spinal Venous Insufficiency (CCSVI) procedure outside Canada.
The panel will develop best-practice guidelines on treatment for those patients and will provide those recommendations to the government.
“It’s a start,” said Mary Helen Mosterman, who travelled to India last summer for the CCSVI procedure, otherwise known as the Liberation treatment.
Similar to an angioplasty, it involves inflating a balloon inside a vein in the patient’s neck to help restore blood flow. An Italian doctor believes the blocked neck veins may be linked to MS.
But because the procedure is considered experimental and unproven, it is not covered by OHIP, forcing patients here to travel outside of the country to receive it, at their own expense.
While Mosterman is still frustrated by that, she said any kind of post-procedure support here in Ontario is welcome.”
But what many MS patients are talking about it is not the support but the lack of support provided by the Ontario government. And the big question, of why is this treatment not available to them at home!?
Click to Chat