To ask the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety when he intends to provide a replacement MS Consultant, who will be based at the Causeway Hospital, to ensure that adequate services are restored for MS patients in this area.

The HSC Board and PHA are due to commence a short review of MS services in December 2014 with a view to establishing agreed patient pathways. The findings of the review, which is part of a wider neurology service initiative across Northern Ireland, should establish agreed patient pathways and help develop service specification and agreed service profile for MS. The Board expects that the development of draft patient pathways anticipated from this work will be available by summer 2015.

Until recently, the gap left by the retirement of the full-time MS Consultant at Causeway Hospital in March 2012 was bridged by providing services on a part-time basis by this consultant.

A final decision on service requirements will be made when the draft patient pathway has been developed and agreed. In the interim a Consultant Neurologist based at BHSCT now provides clinics at Causeway Hospital as a visiting consultant. In addition, the MS Nursing Team in BHSCT continues to provide a range of MS Nursing Services that are not provided locally in other Trusts in Northern Ireland and a community-based MS Nurse is in place to receive telephone calls from patients and their families and visit them in their own homes if required and liaise with the multidisciplinary team.