On November 12th, just a few days after our launch of the Dear Doctor Campaign, @NICEGetInvolved retweeted our campaign and shared their thanks in our work to educate the medical establishment about the new guideline. This is cause for celebration!
This is the start of a real change that has begun in how we are listened to within the medical establishment. This is hugely to be welcomed. We feel we should all take a moment to pause and celebrate our achievements and the start of a new chapter for people with ME.
The ME community is used to struggling alone, working in isolation and against the odds. This has been the narrative for decades and many brave and unrecognised people have worked heroically to ensure the publication of the new NICE guideline. Now we are on the cusp of a revolution! There is still a lot of work to do, some places and people will be hard to reach but we now have the evidence to back our demands and we won’t stop until we have transformed care for ME.
When NICE retweeted our Dear Doctor post it reached far beyond the ME community. This one retweet will reach many more medical staff than we have been able to in the past. We intend that it will be the start of a conversation about how to implement the new guideline, improve the treatment of people with ME and increase the amount of money going into research.
Sajid Javid the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care tweeted recently about the lack of research into ME and the need to do more. He is right, we need vastly more research into ME and we welcome this acknowledgement from him.
These tweets are proof the advocacy work from #MEAction UK is making a difference. We will continue to fight for this community and use our strength in advocacy to create significant change.
One way we can continue to bring about change is to keep spreading our message to all corners of the NHS. You can send out our Dear Doctor video, use our template letter and signpost GPs, consultants, nurses and physios to our medical education resources.
Here are some of the replies that people have received.
“We will pass it onto the GPs and it will be discussed as a team in the clinical meeting.”
“I want to reassure you that all NICE guideline updates are reviewed and discussed at our monthly clinical meetings and this guideline in particular was allocated to a GP for review.”
Let us know if you have any responses–fill out the form below. Feedback makes us happy!
Again, thank you to all who have already shared the Dear Doctor campaign on social media and written to your GPS. We are in this fight together.
