The draft Scottish Budget for 2025/26 was delivered by Shona Robison MSP, Scotland’s Finance Secretary to Holyrood on 4th December and contained a commitment for an ‘additional £4.5 million to deliver new specialist support across the country for Long Covid, ME, Chronic Fatigue, and other similar conditions.’ As the Scottish government is a minority one […]
Individuals with ME/CFS often face scepticism and dismissive attitudes when trying to navigate the healthcare system. A major contributory factor is inadequate training of health and social care professionals, and thus a lack of understanding about the condition. Nevertheless, it is important to recognise that the NICE 2021 guideline for ME/CFS is available, which details the […]
A paper by independent researchers (someone not associated with an academic institution), Mark Vink – also a person with ME/CFS, and Alexandra Vink-Niese, has confirmed the conclusion by NICE that CBT is not an effective treatment for ME/CFS. In the paper, the authors re-examine an existing systematic review – a specific type of study that […]
Sarah Hodgson MP tabled two parliamentary written questions (UIN 8113 and UIN8114) to Andrew Gwynne MP Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care questioning implementation of the NICE’ guideline ‘Myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy)/chronic fatigue syndrome: diagnosis and management’ (NG206) and on any assessments made of the adequacy of the safety of NHS […]
In 2021, NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) published a guideline for diagnosing and managing cases of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). This guideline replaced the NICE 2007 guideline, and key changes included: Summary of NICE 2021 Criteria To diagnose ME/CFS, all of the following symptoms should be present for at least 3 […]
On 25th March 2024 Lord Hunt of Kings Heath laid a written parliamentary question to the Department of Health and Social Care To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the extent to which the 2021 NICE guidance for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) has been implemented (1) in general, and (2) […]
The long and tortuous road to publication of the NICE guideline in 2021 was one littered with delays, a last minute ‘pause‘ on publication a day before release, news that not all interested parties endorsed changes to GET and CBT recommendations (including 4 Royal Colleges), a roundtable meeting, and finally after many years, publication. Yet, […]
Many people with ME/CFS are also affected by postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) which is an autonomic nervous system issue – the symptoms (in simple terms) of which being associated with an abnormally high and persistent increase in heart rate shortly after standing upright, therefore treatment are of interest. Rachael Maskell MP submitted a Parlaimentary […]
The publication of a review into ‘Anomalies in the review process and interpretation of the evidence in the NICE guideline for chronic fatigue syndrome and myalgic encephalomyelitis’ by Prof Peter White et al has been covered in the press – most noticeable by ‘The Guardian’ yesterday – with the review’s authors considering that the 2021 NICE […]
RCGP REPORTReport on a meeting held on Thursday 16th June between Forward ME (FME) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) to discuss implementation of the new NICE guideline on ME/CFS in primary care. Representing Forward ME Andrew Morris – Chair, Forward-MEJonathan Davies – Chair, ME Research UKDr Charles Shepherd – Trustee and Hon. […]
