FREDERICTON - The New Brunswick Medical Society is showing sympathy for a frustrated doctor who accused Premier David Alward of supporting a controversial treatment for multiple sclerosis patients.

In a commentary published in the Telegraph-Journal yesterday, Dr. Patti Forgeron, a physician specialist who provides rehabilitation for MS patients, was harshly critical of Alward. She said that by providing funding for the so-called liberation treatment, he was "condoning facilities in other countries to cheat patients and taxpayers of this province."

In an interview yesterday afternoon, the president of the medical society avoided criticizing the new provincial government and the premier, but he echoed many of Forgeron's worries.

"The New Brunswick Medical Society has been very concerned about the announcement that there would be funding for medical treatment outside of Canada for multiple sclerosis patients," Dr. Allison Kennedy said. "I've been speaking with expert colleagues in the society and I've been hearing loud shouts of caution about patients having this treatment outside of clinical trials. It's a surgical therapy that's potentially dangerous and yet to be proven."

The medical society wants to be consulted about how New Brunswick should spend money on MS patients. Kennedy said this concern has been expressed to the provincial Department of Health for the last couple of weeks, but the society hasn't heard anything "solid" back from the government.

"We're certainly hopeful to work with the Department of Health to find appropriate ways to use new funding for multiple sclerosis patients because it's an incredibly tough disease for these patients and their families to live with, both from a health point of view and financially," Kennedy said.

Debate over the unconventional treatment pioneered by an Italian doctor has been intense, both in New Brunswick and internationally. Dr. Paulo Zamboni first publicized his treatment two years ago, claiming that blocked veins, particularly in the neck area, are likely responsible for most MS symptoms, which can include tingling, numbness, fatigue, muscle weakness, visual and speech problems, and loss of mobility. Many patients end up confined to a wheel chair.

Conventional therapies for the debilitating disease, such as prescribing costly medicines, have had mixed results, driving some patients to seek the alternative treatment, which is scientifically unproven and still unauthorized in Canada.