….. for those suffering from Long Covid, additional £4.5 million to deliver new specialist support across the country for Long Covid, ME, Chronic Fatigue, and other similar conditions.
The draft Scottish Budget for 2025/26 was delivered by Shona Robison MSP, Scotland’s Finance Secretary to Holyrood on 4th December and (page 12) contained the above commitment. The Budget is yet to be voted upon and so may fall but as health is a fully devolved matter the priorities stated by the Scottish government could have an impact on those affected by ME, CFS, Long Covid, and the like in Scotland.
How this sum is utilised and allocated amongst the illnessess is unknown. What is clear from the Scottish government’s own updated November 2024 report on ‘Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) services in Scotland: health board survey – updated analysis’ is that the situation in Scotland for ME/CFS specialist services is dire.
As ME Research UK reported – when Scotland’s 14 territorial NHS Boards in Scotland were asked what specialist ME/CFS services they offered only 2 said that they already had specialist services in place (NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lothian), 1 reported plans for a specialist service (NHS Dumfries and Galloway), and 1 NHS Board had suspended their specialist service temporarily (NHS Fife). Nine NHS Boards said they did not have plans to develop specialist services for ME/CFS in their area, and 1 NHS Board did not respond to the question (NHS Western Isles).
Perhaps new light on one aspect of how the modest funds will be utilised will be provided when Ben Macpherson, MSP‘s Written question S6W-32043 is answered (due 20 December 2024).
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the announcement in its draft Budget 2025-26 of an additional £4.5 million to “deliver new specialist support across the country for Long Covid, ME, Chronic Fatigue, and other similar conditions”, whether this will include funding for the implementation of the NICE guideline on myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), in the event that the draft Budget is agreed to by the Parliament.
The NICE guideline on ME/CFS is not directly effective in Scotland rather the Scottish Good Practice Statement in ME/CFS has been partially updated to include certain elements of the 2021 NICE guideline with an understanding that the Statement will be revisited once the Delivery Plan on ME/CFS is finalised and (eventually) published – now due March 2025.
