Collapse of Specialist NHS ME provision in Northern Ireland.
The Secondary Care Directorate of the DHSSPSNI at Stormont has
informed NIMEA that Jayne Perkes, Senior Occupational Therapist, has
left her post at the CFS Clinic at Belfast City Hospital.
Mrs. Perkes was the only member of NHS staff in Northern Ireland to
specialise solely in the management of CFS/ME. (Dr. David McCluskey at
RVH and Dr Welby Henry at BCH provide only a part-time
diagnose-and-discharge service). Mrs. Perkes=92 post has not been
filled, and it will be impossible to find a replacement with her level
of knowledge and experience. It had been intended that she would help
set up new ME clinics in the other 3 health Trusts, but there is now
no hope of that happening. Effectively her departure marks the
collapse of present and planned specialist ME care within the NHS in
Northern Ireland.
The Health Minister Edwin Poots updated the Assembly about ME services
on 8th July, (for his Written Answer see
http://www.meassociation.org.uk/?p=3D7066), but for some strange reason
he did not mention Mrs. Perkes=92 prior resignation, or its
implications.
Members of NIMEA have been stakeholders on the NI ME Working group at
Stormont since October 2009. But increasingly it has become clear that
the DHSSPSNI and the Health & Social Care Board have no intention of
committing extra financial or manpower resources to improved services
for ME patients in Northern Ireland.
For almost two years now NIMEA have invested a great deal of time and
effort in the Working Group. Unfortunately we seem to have been
banging our heads off a brick wall.
(May be reposted).
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