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Danish Parliament Separates ME G93.3 from Functional Disorders

Following excellent work by European ME Alliance-Denmark member Dansk ME Foreningen, and work and input by those such as European ME Clinicians Council member Dr Jesper Mehlsen, there is now unified support in the Danish parliament for separating ME G93.3 from Functional Disorders and acknowledgment that the existing treatment of ME patients is inadequate and stigmatising.

Specialist services are needed and the Department of Health needs to update its guidance regarding ME.

Voting on the adoption of this proposal took place on Thursday 14th March.

The Danish parliament voted unanimously for the separation of ME WHO ICD-10 G93.3 from Functional Disorders and has called for the Department of Health documentation to be amended to reflect this

Here is the Danish Parliament debate -
https://www.ft.dk/aktuelt/webtv/video/20181/salen/71.aspx

This discussion in the Danish parliament on classifying ME as a somatic and not as a functional disease is good progress. The discussion in the Danish parliament was based on the case of a 29 year old woman who has been lying in bed in a dark room since 2015, being taken care of by her parents without any help from our health care system.

Both the Danish ME organisation and Dr Mehlsen had been in contact with a number of politicians on both sides of the aisle and the results are positive.

Now the Danish parliament has voted unanimously in favour of ME as a somatic disease to be removed from the centres of functional diseases.

That will be a great relief for the family concerned, for physicians, and for the Danish ME community.

The result should help the Finns too, as the Duodecim team has been formed to look at Finnish guidelines and there was a proposal to adopt the previous Danish position.

That cannot happen now and the Finnish authorities must change course accordingly.

In fact, the Finnish situation should be improved for patients and Duodecim need to look at the recent Swedish document where it says there is not enough evidence to formulate adequate guidelines/propose treatments.

Here is the link to the Swedish site - https://www.socialstyrelsen.se/nyheter/2018/merforskningbehovsommecfs

Here is the English version of the summary https://www.socialstyrelsen.se/Lists/Artikelkatalog/Attachments/21182/2018-12-48-summary.pdf

One of the statements from the Swedish working group on guidelines was the following -

" Considering the current situation as regards evidence, it is crucial that the interventions offered to each patient diagnosed with ME/CFS or similar symptoms must be individually adapted for the patient in question and evaluated.
This patient group is in need of care measures to alleviate symptoms and improve quality of life. For the individual patient, different evidence-based interventions can be offered on the basis of the symptoms presented in the patient in question, for example, measures for pain or sleep disturbances. The care provider must be perceptive and take all aspects of the patient’s medical problems and healthcare needs into account."