**Trigger Warning: Upsetting content**
Doctors have said that NHS patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) risk starving to death because of unsafe and “unconscionable” standards of care.
The Times
Extracts
The letter calls for the government to take action to address the “serious patient safety concerns” for patients with ME, an illness which affects about 250,000 people in the UK.”
ME, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, is a complex neurological disorder that leads to symptoms including extreme exhaustion. Severe cases can be fatal, with patients bedridden and unable to eat or drink, but these patients currently “fall through the cracks” as there is no specialist NHS care provision.
A letter signed by 202 doctors and NHS staff calls on ministers to convene an ME clinical task force providing “emergency specialist guidance in cases where patients are hospitalised”, as well as to commit to holding NHS trusts “accountable” for care.
Please read the Times article below. N.B. The article is paywalled.
More information
- #ThereForME Building an NHS that’s there for people with Long Covid and ME | July 2024
- BMJ Evidence Based Nursing: Building an NHS that supports people with Long Covid and ME: Government action needed now | September 2024