A local MP is wading into the debate over a controversial M-S treatment.
Bruce Grey Owen Sound MP Larry Miller wants Queens Park and Ottawa to work together and make the angio-plasty treatment available in Ontario as soon as possible.
Miller says when Premier Brad Wall decided that Saskatchewan will fund the treatment , Ontario’s Premier Dalton McGuinty came out the next day to say it would not follow that provinces’ lead.
The funding of health proceedures is a provincial responsiblity, although some money flows from Ottawa to the provinces once those proceedures are approved.
The local MP says the treatment would only cost 15 hundred to 2 thousand dollars and he encourages the Ontario health minister to approve the treatment, even if patients have to pay for it out of pocket.
Miller’s youngest sister was diagnosed with M-S some 18 years ago and has recently undergone the controversial treatment in Maryland at a cost of 16 thousand 500 dollars.
He says it has given her hope and she feels much better.
Miller says his sister has seen improvement in the feeling in her legs following the proceedure on August 5th.
The Conservative MP admits the treatment is not a cure, but seems to give patients a much better quality of life.
He has been working with MPP Bill Murdoch, encourging him to pick up the cause.
Miller is also disappointed that MS Canada does not support the treatment and says that may be one reason that provincial health ministers are refusing to fund it.
Manitoba’s health minister has called for a national trial on the M-S treatment and this morning Quebec’s health minister said his province would be willing to join in on the trial.
