The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2026 to 2031 was announced to Holyrood on 1st September 2026 and included a plan to “simplify the NHS by replacing the current 14 territorial Health Boards with two Strategic Health Boards and build on planned reforms to further reduce the number of special Health Boards.”
With the Boards going to be merged, how will the new specialist support services newly opened to people with ME/CFS be organised and what will the service look like? Although some of the smaller NHS Boards planned to co-operate in provision of services, most did not. Many of the planned services morphed from long COVID resources and so making what was to be offered NICE compliant was always a concern. Now nascent services will once more need to be created anew.
When the draft Scottish Budget for 2025/26 was delivered by Shona Robison MSP, Scotland’s Finance Secretary to Holyrood on 4th December 2024 it 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.’The Scottish Government on 25th September 2025 announced how it intended utilising the funding with an online statement headed ‘Funding long COVID services’ which ‘Patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and similar conditions will also be eligible for referral.’
There then followed a process where current NHS Boards made proposals to government on the new service and funds were allocated across the 14 areas – the results being uncovered by ME Research UK’s Freedom of Information Act requests. This to counter the issues raised in the Scottish Government’s own Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) services in Scotland: health board survey.
It would not be without precedent if the NHS in Scotland decides ultimately to adopt the template service specification for mild and moderate ME/CFS, which is currently being developed by England’s Department of Heath and Social Care in conjunction with NHS England, which “aims to improve pathways through care for patients with Long Covid, ME/CFS, and other related conditions.” This was being prepared due to a recommendation in the ME/CFS Delivery Plan.
What is the precedent? The Scottish Government was engaged with stakeholders in a re-write of the Scottish Good Practice Statement on ME/CFS which guided practitioners in Scotland to take heed of improvements and evidence-based decisions within the new NICE guideline – which had no force north of the border. The Statement on ME/CFS was updated in a piecemeal fashion and by 2023, ad hoc changes brought guidance in Scotland broadly into line with that of England when considering diagnosis and inserted updates into the text for other issues such as CBT and GET but was not a total re-write for the Scottish context. Moves towards a full re-write were paused whilst the ME/CFS Delivery Plan was being prepared. Then, in a surprise move, the Scottish Government withdrew the Scottish Good Practice Statement on ME/CFS on 28 May 2025 and left, as the Government statement said made ‘NICE Guideline NG206 .. the default clinical guidance on ME/CFS’ in Scotland.
