The Brighton-based Sussex ME Society is marking a special anniversary this week, which coincides with the annual national ME Awareness Week.
THIS week is the 10th anniversary of the establishment of a specialist ME NHS service in Sussex.
Coinciding with national ME Awareness Week which runs from May 11 – 27, it is a decade since the opening of the much-needed resource.
As a county Sussex has dealt with more referrals than any other local NHS ME service in the UK.
The Sussex ME Society enjoys a good working relationship with the local NHS Sussex ME/CFS Service team, which continues to receive 40 referrals per month.
The illness-management courses offered by the service staff are popular among many patients, helping them to learn how to manage the unseen illness as effectively as possible.
As well as providing these courses, the service team have also taken part in GP training at Sussex County Hospital.
David Butler of the ME Society says: “Even though they do not have all the answers to this complicated chronic illness, the NHS service is helping many towards improved health.”
The specialist centre was set up following a survey conducted in 1999 amongst people affected by Myalgic Encephalopathy or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The evidence from this survey, along with that of GPs across Sussex identified the need for a specialist NHS service to be established. The service was eventually set up in the Spring of 2005 and has since dealt with over 4,000 referrals.
The organisation has gone on to attend dozens of meetings with Sussex Primary Care Trust officers, who planned the service and successfully applied for a share of £8.5m made available at that time by the Department of Health, for this kind of specialist UK centre. The multidisciplinary specialist team includes a specialist doctor, occupational therapists and physiotherapists along with a psychologist and administrator.
For more information about ME Sussex, click here:
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