Yesterday (28.07.25), the British Medical Journal (BMJ) published an article on the Department of Health and Social Care's (DHSC) Delivery Plan on ME/CFS.
Extracts
“Better education of professionals” is at the forefront of a government plan to improve the lives of patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis (chronic fatigue syndrome or ME/CFS).
The Department of Health and Social Care’s final delivery plan for England, originally commissioned by former health secretary Sajid Javid in 2022,2 says that NHS healthcare professionals will be offered new training on the illness “as a priority.”
The new e-learning training modules aim to “increase understanding and ensure signs are not missed” to help combat stigma faced by people with ME/CFS. But the training will not be mandatory for healthcare professionals, the health department told The BMJ. Instead, it and NHS England will encourage widespread professional uptake, while several royal colleges have agreed to promote the modules.
The Royal College of Physicians has also agreed to aim for all its members to complete the e-learning by the end of 2025, the department added.
BMJ article contained the following MEA Comment
Trustee and medical adviser to the ME Association Charles Shepherd also criticised the plan’s lack of “clear ambition or strategy to drive consistent implementation of the NICE guideline recommendations across integrated care boards.”
He said that the without a “far more ambitious” long term research strategy with dedicated funding the majority of research will continue to be funded by the charity sector. And “while the plan references long covid in research, it ignores the reality that NHS England has withdrawn funding from many long covid clinics, which are now closed.”
Shepherd added that several of the plan’s own deadlines had already passed, making it “unclear what progress has been made.”
Dr Charles Shepherd,
Trustee and Hon. Medical Adviser to the ME Association,
Member of the 2018-2021 NICE guideline on ME/CFS committee,
Member of the 2002 Chief Medical Officer's Working Group on ME/CFS
More Information
- DHSC Delivery Plan on ME/CFS | July 22, 2025
- The ME Association’s statement on the Government’s Delivery Plan on ME/CFS | July 22, 2025
- ITV News: Government pledges to ‘transform care’ for people with ME | July 22, 2025
- (Paywalled) The Times: My daughter died from ME. This new plan fails her and others like her | July 22, 2025
- (Paywalled) The Times: Doctors to be trained on ME in NHS plan to transform care | July 22, 2025
- The Independent: ME care reforms promised after woman’s tragic death | July 22, 2025
- Hello Rayo: Government pledges ‘improved care closer to home' for people with ME | July 22, 2025
- Channel 4 News: ‘ME Delivery Plan: will it make a difference? | July 22, 2025
- Times Radio covers the ME/CFS Delivery Plan (thank you Broken Battery)
- Pulse: GPs to support delivery of ME/CFS care under new NHS plan | July 22, 2025
- Healthcare Management: NHS professionals to be trained on ME and chronic fatigue syndrome | July 22, 2025
- Medscape: After a Long Delay, ME/CFS Strategy Finally Arrives | July 23, 2025