For Michelle Morgan, each day is a battle with her agonizing MS. Recently, she’s embroiled in another battle, a battle for a wonder drug to ease her suffering.

Being diagnosed with MS over 8 years ago, Michelle, now 47, didn’t get anything from doctors to ease her pain – besides aspirin.

Michelle and her family new hope was brought by cannabis-based spray Sativex that was licensed in June.
However, for the moment doctor’s can’t prescribe her this drug, even if local NHS paymasters are going to pay for it.

Michelle’s husband said:  “Michelle is in so much pain that she can hardly walk and she is getting worse all the time.”
“But all we are getting is delays. It’s cruel. Don’t they care?”

Michelle and her family are simple victims of NHS because NHS means a complex web of organizations, each with their own rules.

Because she lives in Nuneaton, NHS Warwickshire pays for her drugs. However, her local NHS is willing to pay for Sativex if it’s prescribed by a specialist, not by a GP.

NHS paid £500 for the treatment with Sativex of four patients even before the drug was licensed. However, no new requests were received since.

Because the Morgans are not happy with their local specialists, they asked to be referred somewhere else, and now Michelle sees a specialist at University Hospitals Leicester, but the doctors there are not allowed to prescribe Sativex.
According to the head of neurology at Leicester’s hospitals, Dr Peter Critcheley, they are unable to prescribe the drug because it has no national or local approval. However, the doctors at Leicester will asses if Michelle is eligible for the drug in November, but before prescribing Sativex, they need to prescribe her Baclofen – only if it doesn’t have any effect they’ll be able to prescribe Sativex.

Even so, Michelle could have years to wait until the doctors in Leicester are allowed to prescribe her this new drug.
At the same time, the specialists in Coventry could prescribe her the drug immediately. Michelle’s husband said: “We wouldn’t mind waiting until November if we knew Michelle was then going to be given the drug.”
“It’s the uncertainty that’s unbearable – after waiting all those months we could be told she’s not eligible and we’re back to square one.”

Michelle’s story is not an isolated case, as many MS patients in the UK battle to get the new drug that will relief some of their pain.

NHS’s delays are due to the fact that patients are pressing doctors for treatments that are though unsuitable for this condition – but this isn’t the case for Sativex. According to the MS Society, there are numerous cases where patients had their lives changed for the better after using Sativex.

MS Society’s head of campaigns Laura Weir said that the charity has been overwhelmed by MS patients trying to get the new drug. “It’s clear to us it’s a nationwide problem; there’s a real postcode lottery around accessing the treatment, even though it’s been thoroughly tested and could make a significant difference to a person’s quality of life. [...]We’d like to see Sativex widely available for all those who need it.”