Saskatchewan Health Minister Don McMorris is brimming over with good intentions. That’s why he has decided to fund a clinical trial of a controversial treatment for multiple sclerosis.

His counterpart in Newfoundland, Jerome Kennedy, has his heart in the right place. He has decided to fund a study to monitor patients who undergo the so-called liberation therapy.

The issue somehow found its way onto the agenda of the meeting of federal, provincial and territorial health ministers in St. John’s this week, and it’s constantly in the headlines.

One cannot help but feel for patients with MS. It is a terrible affliction whose treatments are largely ineffective. The theory put forth by Paolo Zamboni, that blocked veins may be a cause of debilitating MS symptoms, is, if nothing else, exciting.

But does anyone honestly believe that health ministers should be micromanaging the $183-billion-a-year health system to the point where they decide what research is done on specific illnesses?

What are the health ministers going to take a stand on next: the colour scheme for the Black Tickle Community Clinic?

What are they going to put on the agenda of their next meeting: the allocation of parking spots at Cranbrook Regional Hospital?