Patients have been left ‘abandoned’ as a Nuneaton hospital service has been cut ‘with no warning’.
The ME Association has hit out at the loss of the dedicated services for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Chronic Fatigue (MECFS) specialist referral service at the George Eliot Hospital.
The charity also also says that the Long Covid community service in Rugby has also been axed.
Dr Charles Shepherd, Trustee and honorary medical adviser to the ME Association, told CoventryLive that patients had been ‘abandoned’ and many of them only found out the services had been stopped via social medIa.
He claimed that the NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) took the decision without warning and without any consultation, leaving those who need the services ‘in limbo’.
“The people who are either on the waiting list for it or are already under the care of the service are cross and dismayed by this because there doesn’t appear to be anywhere else for them to go apart from to go back to their GPs,” Dr Shepherd said.
“The whole point about having a specialist referral service is that it is there to make sure the diagnosis is correct and to make sure they can have further input it by specialist advice or management when the GP is requiring that sort of help.
“They (the patients) have been abandoned, left in a limbo. I mean, what is distressing and concerning to us is that many of them have not been informed about the closure.
“They’ve only learned about it through social media. The GPs haven’t been informed about it in some cases.”
He said the charity’s page on Facebook was inundated with posts from patients: “One of them said ‘I’m under this clinic and haven’t even been contacted or told it is being closed or moving’ , one said ‘I was on the waiting list for George Eliot and found they had closed on the face Facebook group’ and another said ‘I’m in that clinic and I haven’t been notified of any changes’,” he explained.
Dr Shepherd said the ICB decision goes against that of health minister Sharon Hodgson MP, who has advised about improving or setting up these services, and said that ICBs are expected to commission services for people with MECFS across all levels of severity, including those with severe and very severe ME.
“Here in Coventry and Warwickshire, people do not have a service that they are entitled to,” he said
The expert added the commissioning responsibility lies with the Integrated Care Board (ICB), rather than the hospital.
ICB statement
CoventryLive contacted the NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) and in a statement, a spokesperson said that there are currently no specialst services but added that they are working with hospitals to see how they can be delivered in the future.
“The ICB has not changed how we fund ME/CFS services,” the spokesperson said.
“However, we acknowledge that recent changes to how these services are delivered have meant there are no specialist ME/CFS clinics currently operating in Coventry and Warwickshire.
“We are working closely with our local NHS Trusts to explore potential options for how ME/CFS services may be delivered moving forwards, with the aim of ensuring all patients in our area have equitable access to these services.
“We would like to reassure ME/CFS patients across Coventry and Warwickshire that they are still able to access a range of support for their condition, which they can be referred to via their GP.”
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