Risk Sharing Scheme is 'not fit for purpose'

The chair of the all-party parliamentary group on multiple sclerosis (MS) has written off any benefits associated with the Risk Sharing Scheme this week.

James Grap MP said that it showed a number of fatal flaws and is out of date to a "hopeless" degree, basing its knowledge on methodological and statistical inadequacies.

The theory for prescribing drugs is also out of touch with medical science, while NICE guidelines on risk sharing drugs for MS have "stagnated", concluding that the scheme is "knackered".

Simon Gillespie, chief executive of the MS Society, said of the debate: "There are serious questions about why this scheme has failed to deliver.

"A number of different versions of the two year analysis report appear to have been floating around since April 2008 but we are left none-the-wiser as to the effectiveness of these drugs today."

He concluded that the Department of Health should face up to the situation and admit that their scheme is "simply not fit for purpose".

Read about Barchester expertise in offering multiple sclerosis support.