g/story-15506191-detail/story.html
Health trust 'among worst offenders' over lack of spending on ME patients
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
A CALL has been made for more NHS cash to be spent on people suffering
from a mysterious illness which causes chronic tiredness.
NHS Derbyshire County is among 24 local health authorities to have
been criticised by a national charity for spending too little on
specialist services for people with ME.
Medics are yet to discover what causes the incurable condition, which
is also known as chronic fatigue syndrome and affects around 250,000
people in Britain.
Now Action for ME has revealed that NHS Derbyshire County, which pays
for healthcare in the county outside Derby, spent =A344 per head on
specialist services in the year from April 2010. It was among 24
health authorities which spent =A350 or less per ME patient. Sir Peter
Spencer, chief executive of Action for ME, said NHS Derbyshire County
was among the country's "worst offenders" when it came to a lack of
funding.
He said: "I know of no other illness with such a devastating impact on
so many people which has so little money spent on scientific research
or the provision of specialist healthcare."
But Dr Bruce Laurence, NHS Derbyshire County's deputy director of
public health, said patients were well supported.
He said: "We have committed to spending =A3200,000 on the specialist
chronic fatigue syndrome service based at Royal Derby Hospital in the
next financial year. This offers outpatient appointments, follow-up
appointments, therapy sessions, group sessions, home visits and
telephone follow-ups to sufferers.
"We also fund a CFS network, support services in the north of the
county and have given significant amounts of money over the past five
years to pay for treatments, therapies and assessments not routinely
funded on the NHS. And many people are cared for by their GP rather
than through specialist services funded by us."
Across the country, the amount of cash spent on specialist services
per patient ranged from nothing whatsoever in 14 areas of the country
to =A3382 in Birmingham and Solihull.
NHS Derbyshire County's sister organisation, NHS Derby City, spent
=A376. This was above the national average of =A364.
The Derby Telegraph reported last month how University of Derby
graduate Lois Owen died after her weight plummeted to just 3st 2lbs
because of chronic fatigue syndrome and anorexia. She was looked after
by Derby's NHS and her family said they were satisfied with her care.
Sarah Finch, of Alvaston, who has chronic fatigue syndrome, said she
attended a course run by Derby NHS to help people suffering from the
condition.
The 39-year-old said: "The sessions ran for nine weeks and were good.
But I'd done a lot of research myself about the condition, so the
information wasn't that helpful. The money should go towards providing
additional services and long-term support."
---------------------------------------------
Send posts to CO-CURE@listserv.nodak.edu
Unsubscribe at http://www.co-cure.org/unsub.htm
Too much mail? Try a digest version. See http://www.co-cure.org/digest.htm
---------------------------------------------
Co-Cure's purpose is to provide information from across the spectrum of
opinion concerning medical, research and political aspects of ME/CFS and/or
FMS. We take no position on the validity of any specific scientific or
political opinion expressed in Co-Cure posts, and we urge readers to
research the various opinions available before assuming any one
interpretation is definitive. The Co-Cure website <www.co-cure.org> has a
link to our complete archive of posts as well as articles of central
importance to the issues of our community.
---------------------------------------------
