Article by Grace Marner
The ME Association says it's a postcode lottery as to whether GPs consider a condition as being ‘at risk' from coronavirus. Dr Shepherd and Hannah from Brighton explain the problems people are facing.
Dr Shepherd comments
“We've been hearing from a lot of people who are trying to get into Group 6, which is this group of people who are being vaccinated once everyone over the age of 65 have been vaccinated.
“It's a special group of people who have medical conditions which primarily place them at increased risk of hospital admission and serious illness with covid.
“Now there's a second strand to this criteria and that allows doctors to use their clinical judgement in cases where people have a pre-existing medical condition which is likely to be worsened by Covid.
“ME/CFS is normally triggered by a viral infection and is made worse by viral infections and we know there is a lot of overlap between long covid and ME/CFS. We've also been collecting patient evidence since covid started of people with ME who have caught covid and they've suffered a significant relapse of their symptoms.
“It's pretty clear to us that people with ME should fall into this category and a lot of doctors are happy to accept that but it's very much a postcode lottery.
“We have doctors in all parts of the United Kingdom who are saying yes, we've got Clinical Commissing Groups who are saying yes and Primary Care Networks who are saying yes – and yet the neighbouring Health Board, the neighbouring Clinical Commissioning Groups, the neighbouring doctors practise is saying no.
“So it's a totally crazy situation people are finding themselves in. It's yet another battle just to get what they should be able to have.”