MULTIPLE sclerosis is a dreadful disease. It attacks the body's nervous system causing symptoms from shaking limbs to near-total paralysis.

A cure is many years away. People with MS have few causes for hope, but one was the development of beta interferon. The drug, prescribed widely in other countries including the United States, reduced the relapse rate of many sufferers by one third on average. Some stopped relapsing completely.

Beta interferon does not work on all MS sufferers, and has no long-term effect on the progress of the disability. But for many with the disease it does offer a hugely improved quality of life.

Yet this potential has been kept locked away from them while an argument raged over the bill.

It is expensive, costing around £10,000 a year per patient. However, that does not take into account the savings to the welfare state from people suffering fewer relapses because of the drug's positive effects.

And this is about more than just money. It is about people with a disease being denied treatment. It goes to the heart of the debate about health service rationing.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence said the drug was not cost-effective enough to be prescribed on the NHS. Ministers partly overturned this decision, saying that several thousand people with the relapsing/remitting form of MS would be allowed beta interferon, on a "payment by results" deal with the suppliers.

That was back in February. The drug was licensed in Britain seven years ago. Patients like York mother Sharon Metcalfe have been waiting a long time for beta interferon.

And still they must wait. Local health trusts have yet to put the infrastructure in place to monitor patients. That could take months.

In terms of bureaucratic and financial planning, 'months' is not a long time. But it is a lifetime to someone like Mrs Metcalfe whose condition could deteriorate quickly.

We urge the health trusts to do all they can to bring forward their prescription of this vital treatment.

Updated: 10:47 Monday, July 01, 2002