News | The ME Association - Part 194

BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘Good Morning Scotland’ programme will contain an item about Mickel Therapy and its use with people with ME on Wednesday, 23 April, at about 6.40am.

From "The Big Issue in the North’, 14-20 April 2008  (writer: Martin Guttridge-Hewitt) (NB: "Royal Medical School" should read "Royal Society of Medicine") The use of cognitive behavioural in the treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome has come under renewed fire ahead of a Royal Medical School conference at the end of this month.

The next meeting of the Cross Party Group on ME in the Scottish Parliament will take place on Wednesday this week (23 April) in Committee Room 3 at 1pm. Anyone wishing to attend and who requires a pass should in the first instance contact Patricia Chambers, tel: 01355 806223 or e-mail: Patricia.Chambers@scottish.parliament.uk

From The Mail on Sunday  (by Becky Barrow) Doctors are being pressured into signing off more than 70,000 workers a year who are well enough to work, a tribunal heard.

From the Birmingham Post, 9 April 2008 (by Neil Connor, chief reporter) The Midland headquarters of a firm which processes applications for incapacity benefit awarded "erroneous" claims to meet Government targets, it was claimed yesterday.

A City worker with CFS has won her claim for unfair dismissal, victimisation and disability discrimination. Julie Pine was made redundant from her job as a database administrator by buyout investment company Cinven.

The clinical champion of the Leeds and West Yorkshire ME/CFS service and a colleague will be talking about pacing and graded activity at a meeting being hosted by Kirklees Independent ME Support Group in Huddersfield on Tuesday, 6 May.

From the London Evening Standard, 8 April 2008. A City worker with ME is suing a private equity fund for more than £100,000 after she was fired for being disabled, an industrial tribunal heard.

A DVD-set of the proceedings of the Southampton ME/CFS biomedical research conference on 12 February is now available. 

This letter from Dr Charles Shepherd, medical adviser to The ME Association, appeared on the FT letters pages today. Sir, Imagine developing a severe disabling neurological illness that may be dismissed by your doctor as being “all in the mind” or even non-existent (“If it’s in the mind, it’s still the real thing”, Life & […]

We have today sent the following letter to the Chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners about their inaccurate classification of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. 

by Lois Rogers. This article appeared on 31 March 2008. ME, the crippling disease you can catch just by going for a walk

(Letter published 29 March 2008)  From Ms Hayley Klinger. Sir, Margaret McCartney’s article about medically unexplained symptoms contains a number of false assumptions ("If it’s in the mind, it’s still the real thing", Life & Arts, March 22-23).

An assessment to establish the level of need for a specialist NHS medical service in Berkshire for people with ME/CFS has been launched by the county’s two Primary Care Trusts.

Statement by The ME Association The ME Association fully shares the concerns of a growing number of our members who have been contacting us about the strong psychiatric/psychological bias to the presentations that will be given to a meeting on CFS at the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) on April 28. 

Dr Ben Goldacre, the well known critic of bad science, is presenting a two-part programme on BBC Radio 4 looking at nutritional medicine and nutritional therapists.

Letter to the Editor from Neil Riley As Chairman of The ME Association, I am delighted that Margaret McCartney turns to our website for information about this devastating illness we call myalgic encephalopathy ("if it’s in the mind, it’s still the real thing”). 

Weekend columnist, Margaret McCartney, 22 March 2008 ‘If it’s in the mind, it’s still the real thing’  

This is an interesting and useful short research report from doctors in Singapore who have looked at the incidence of post-infectious fatigue syndrome in people recovering from a tropical infection known as dengue fever.

All ‘domiciliary care workers’ – the people who are paid to come into people’s homes to help with things like washing and dressing – will soon need to register with a government body, the General Social Care Council (GSCC).