ANOTHER week, another story about an apparent postcode lottery for patients.

This time it is multiple sclerosis sufferers in Oxfordshire who appear to be missing out on medication they need.

It is worrying to hear such a high proportion of MS sufferers in Oxfordshire – 79 per cent, according to the MS Society – do not get the drugs they require. Perhaps more worrying still is the lack of clarity over whose responsibility this falls under.

For those of us who are fit and healthy, it is hard to imagine living with a condition which can affect everything from balance and vision to walking unaided, and the unpredictable roller-coaster of remission and relapse can only make this harder to deal with.

If there are drugs and specialists out there who can provide much-needed help, it is only right and fair patients here have as much opportunity to benefit from them as elsewhere.

With all the changes in the NHS, now is the right time for the Multiple Sclerosis Society to apply pressure for Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, NHS England or indeed the Department of Health, to take responsibility and address what appears to be an unequal balance.