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Dept of Health

Answer

Mr. Sawford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the number of people in Britain diagnosed as suffering with chronic fatigue syndrome; and how many are receiving, or have received, specialist treatment for their condition. [67010] Ms Jowell: The information is not available in the form requested. A number of definitions, disease descriptions or diagnostic criteria have been proposed to describe chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis. However, there is no general agreement as to which should be used. This makes the results from studies on the prevalence of CFS/ME difficult to interpret and there is no agreement on the incidence of the illness. There is no information available on outpatient appointments. However, figures for CFS/ME for ordinary admissions and daycases in NHS trusts in England, for financial years 1995-96 to 1997-98 are shown in the table. The National Health Service provides a considerable number of services to which sufferers from CFS/ME have access, because of the wide range of symptoms people with CFS/ME can experience they are seen within a wide range of hospital specialties. Under the present system it is for health authorities and general practitioners to plan and arrange the services available to people in their care, following an assessment of their needs. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Year FCEs 1995-96 705 1996-97{1} 600 1997-98{1} 650 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} Figures for 1996-97, 1997-98 are provisional, no adjustments have yet been made for shortfalls in data (i.e. the data are ungrossed) Notes: 1. Ordinary admissions and daycases combined--finished consultant episodes (FCEs) by primary diagnochronic/post viral fatigue syndrome in NHS trusts in England. 2. ICD1 10 code used is G93.3. 3. An FCE represents a complete period of inpatient treatment under the care of an individual hospital consultant and in about 95 per cent. of cases represent a complete spell in hospital. Source: Department of Health, Hospital Episode Statistics

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

67010; 325 c115W

Session

1998-99

Subjects

ME/CFS Health services Diseases Medical treatments

Contains statistics

Yes