A hospital treating a woman with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) was warned a month before her death that staff had “outdated” views about her condition, an inquest heard.
BBC News
Extracts
Dr Willy Weir, a retired NHS consultant and expert in ME (as pictured above), said he had urged bosses at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital to readmit Maeve Boothby-O’Neill for life-saving treatment. The 27-year-old died at home in Exeter in October 2021 having had the illness since the age of 13.
The retired consultant told the hearing in Exeter that he had written to the chief executive of the hospital on 9 September expressing his concerns about her case and the “outdated” views some doctors held about ME.
Consequently, patients with this condition have frequently been regarded as perversely inactive without any regard for the possibility that their inactivity is not due to deliberately perverse behaviour. This can lead to completely inappropriate management of someone genuinely severely affected by a condition with demonstrable organic pathology.
Dr William Weir
A further point I wish to make is that it would appear a considerable proportion of the staff at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, including some consultants, still hold an outdated understanding that ME has psychological causes.
“There are still plenty of medical professionals out there in the community who are still inherent to the dogma and sadly has a very seriously damaging effect on understanding the true scientific nature of this condition,” he added.
The inquest, which is scheduled to last two weeks, continues.
Further Media Coverage
- The Times: NHS staff thought patient’s illness was self-inflicted, inquest told | 24th July 2024 (paywalled)
- Independent: Doctors held ‘outdated’ views about ME, inquest into sufferer’s death hears | 24th July 2024
- Daily Mail: Consultants treating woman who died from debilitating ME blamed her and thought her illness was ‘self-inflicted', inquest hears | 24th July 2024
- Yahoo News: Doctors held ‘outdated’ views about ME, inquest into sufferer’s death hears | 24th July 2024
- Express & Star: Doctors held ‘outdated’ views about ME, inquest into sufferer’s death hears | 24th July 2024
- Irish News: Doctors held ‘outdated’ views about ME, inquest into sufferer’s death hears | 24th July 2024 (paywalled