United Kingdom: News from #MEAction Network UK

Their details are listed on the Charity Commission website:
https://register-of-charities.chari...rityDetailsPortlet_organisationNumber=5213556

Some quotes

Overview

Activities - how the charity spends its money
Our work centres around empowering/enabling people with ME and other complex, chronic illnesses (including post infectious illnesses). At present, the focus is on supporting people with ME but we may also focus on other complex, chronic illnesses in future. We carry out activities that improve the understanding of ME and help to relieve sickness through better treatment and public understanding.

Income and expenditure
Data for financial year ending 31 October 2024
Total income: £0
Total expenditure: £150

3 trustees:
Denise Spreag Chair
Malcolm Bailey
Janet Sylvester
 
From Facebook:

In mid December last year, #MEActionUK emailed NHS England regarding the web page on ME/CFS on the NHS UK website (see link below). Although the page was recently updated - on 28th May 2024 - it currently contains misleading information which does not align with the NICE guideline NG206 on ME/CFS.
This webpage is an important source of information for people looking for information on ME/CFS, particularly journalists and others in the media who continue to quote the incorrect information it contains, for example 'The most common symptom is extreme tiredness'. #MEActionUK asked NHS England to edit it in order that it reflects the latest guideline, while noting that some aspects of the NICE guideline for ME/CFS (2021) HAVE been incorporated into the web page.
Just before Christmas, NHS England replied saying that our request would be added to their backlog for a member of the website team to pick up when there is capacity. They will notify us when this has happened. #MEActionUK will keep in contact with NHS England and keep you updated on any progress.

#MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #MyalgicE #HealthEquality
 
From Facebook:

In mid December last year, #MEActionUK emailed NHS England regarding the web page on ME/CFS on the NHS UK website (see link below). Although the page was recently updated - on 28th May 2024 - it currently contains misleading information which does not align with the NICE guideline NG206 on ME/CFS.
This webpage is an important source of information for people looking for information on ME/CFS, particularly journalists and others in the media who continue to quote the incorrect information it contains, for example 'The most common symptom is extreme tiredness'. #MEActionUK asked NHS England to edit it in order that it reflects the latest guideline, while noting that some aspects of the NICE guideline for ME/CFS (2021) HAVE been incorporated into the web page.
Just before Christmas, NHS England replied saying that our request would be added to their backlog for a member of the website team to pick up when there is capacity. They will notify us when this has happened. #MEActionUK will keep in contact with NHS England and keep you updated on any progress.

#MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #MyalgicE #HealthEquality
do you know whether it was mid- Dec 2025 they mean (or Dec 2024) ?

- slightly thrown by the last year in relation to 'recently updated in May 2024', and the NHS England replying just before Christmas which could mean they replied in a week or two.
 
From Facebook:

!
Take part in our survey and help advance a diagnostic blood test for ME/CFS

MEAction UK is working with the research team at the University of East Anglia (UEA) Medical School to assist in developing a research application to be submitted to the Medical Research Council (MRC). To help them secure funding we just need approximately five to ten minutes of your time to complete this questionnaire.

To complete the questionnaire and for more information read our news article:

#MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #MEBloodTest
 
The following went out today to an ME Action mailing list; they are campaigning for a specific service for very severe patients.

What troubles me is that there is no acknowledgement that the existing "services" are, to use the modern political argot, "not fit for purpose" - that the existing NHS provision ranges between largely useless and very severely harmful. If the NHS were to commission such a service at the present time they would likely turn to BACME & to the existing psychobehavioural / rehabilitationist clinics - or, even worse, to some liaison psychiatry based approach like that of NICPM.

Without first campaigning for a change in the type of provision that is currently offered; without a wholesale change in NHS policy on ME/CFS - we could end up empowering those who are very much part of the problem, in precisely the same manner as occurred with the Norwegian National Competence Centre.

From: MEAction UK <postman@meaction.org.uk>
To: <xxxxx@xxx.ac.uk>
Subject: #MillionsMissing 2026 campaign for an NHS service for the very severe

The most severely ill people with ME have nowhere to go, no treatment, no ward, no NHS service.

They are dying and they need help. They need a specialised service to be commissioned now!

Only one person has the power to set commissioning in motion for an NHS specialised service for the very severe, Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. This was illustrated by the DHSC ME/CFS Final Delivery Plan published in July 2025 which says, ‘DHSC, with NHS England, will explore whether a specialised service should be prescribed by the Secretary of State for very severe ME/CFS’. The start of this process has now been pushed back to April 2027.

Even if the process started today it could take 7 years to produce a service. The very severely ill can’t wait for the many years it takes to set up a new service. People need support now. The good news is that this can be set up quickly using the virtual ward model.

Your local Integrated Care Board (ICB) has the power to set up virtual wards in your area.

A virtual ward allows patients to receive acute, hospital-level care in their own homes, care homes, or hospices rather than a hospital bed. It uses technology—such as apps, wearables, and monitoring devices—combined with regular, multidisciplinary team visits (nurses, doctors, therapists) to monitor conditions, prescribe medication, and provide treatments like oxygen or fluids.

As part of #MillionsMissing 2026 we are asking you to get in touch with your MP and ask them to lobby Wes Streeting MP during ME Awareness Week 11-17th May.

Use our Very Severe Parliamentary Advocacy Guide and write to your MP and demand two things:

Demand that your MP lobby Wes Streeting MP and urge the immediate commissioning of an NHS specialised service for the most severely ill. Tell them that there is no NHS service for very severe ME patients to be referred to and the decision to set up this service lies with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

This service will take years to make a difference even if it is started today so also ask for:

The immediate setting up of a virtual ward system and inclusion in Integrated Care Boards (ICB) Joint Forward Plans.

Your MP can lobby your local Integrated Care Board (ICB) for the immediate setting up of a virtual ward system and inclusion in their Joint Forward Plan.

If your MP is willing to help please email admin@meaction.org.uk, we are happy to provide more information.

Thank you for taking the time to read our email. This campaign is aimed at getting a service set up for the very severely ill but we have not forgotten people who are mild, moderate or severe and will continue working for all people with ME throughout the year.

Stop the harm, Stop the deaths, Start the service.

Let’s make our voices heard!





All at #MEAction UK
 
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Post moved from World ME Day 2026 (May 12th)

Is there a page for the different areas or are they all to be discussed here? I note there is a page for the US campaign then a link thru to see if it is eg UK or global etc.

The UK page: https://www.meaction.net/millionsmissing26-uk

has a para for the UK and then the rest is for Scotland


It seems the main MEACtion UK campaign is to ask pwme to lobby their MP. With a sheet telling them how to get in touch with their MP. For those who already do and so know about this the main additional info that makes it more 'specific' ie to the campaign only seems to be the suggestions of what MEAction says you might bring up?

Which seems to be covered by the following:

‘Asks’- Actions your MP can take

Setting up a service for the very severe

There is no NHS service for the very severe ME patient to be referred to. The setting up of this service is in the gift of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care so ask your MP to set up a meeting and present the urgent case for healthcare for the severe and very severe with ME.

This service will take years to make a difference even if it is started today so you can
ask you MP to: Lobby your local Integrated Care Board (ICB) for the immediate setting up of a virtual ward system and inclusion in their Joint Forward Plan. https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-...contact-your-local-integrated-care-board-icb/

A virtual ward allows patients to receive acute, hospital-level care in their own homes, care homes, or hospices rather than a hospital bed. It uses technology—such as apps, wearables, and monitoring devices—combined with regular, multidisciplinary team visits (nurses, doctors, therapists) to monitor conditions, prescribe medication, and provide treatments like oxygen or fluids.

Can I ask where this was agreed and who decides this is what they were positioned to ask for (as they had the detail) eg 'a service for the very severe', but also where the idea we should all be asking for a virtual ward system came from?

I'm guessing we don't just want to lobby the ICB for there to be 'something' in relation to that and all of the description of it seems to be generic to illnesses. ie monitoring is all very well but NO if it is a case of them using this suggestion to put those most severe on the medical equivalent of behavioural monitoring thru apps and wearables.

How much time has been spent making sure there is a central document that means noone is 'just writing this' and then ICB being left to it? Is there said document?

Are they aware of the risk of making things a lot worse for those who are most severe by doing 'something' in a rushed or ill-thought-through way?

Sorry but I get very frustrated by the iterative own-goals we leave governments to take someone's words and be able to do something which would be terrible for patients under the guise of 'they asked for it' because that ask was left to be done whatever way someone likes.

SO I want to know what is going on? Where has this come from? How much time was spent on it? How many of those directly involved with those very severe, currently (not just people thinking/assuming they know what they need) and ongoing, and listening properly to those who are severe and very severe speaking for themselves and giving them the space and 'seeking to understand' was this based on? Or which medical / experts were involved to check it is an ask that wouldn't backfire or didn't need to be caveated etc?
 
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