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Written question asked by Jo Platt (Labour) on Friday, 14 November 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 18 November 2025. It was answered by Sharon Hodgson (Labour) on Monday, 27 April 2026 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

ME/CFS: Health Services

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the Department can outline how many NHS outpatient services for ME/CFS are currently operational in England, and how many of these accept referrals for patients with severe or very severe ME/CFS.

Answer

Our ME/CFS Final Delivery Plan, published in July 2025, includes an action for the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England to explore whether a specialised service should be prescribed by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for very severe myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).

The third and final session in NHS England’s ME/CFS e-learning series, Managing Severe ME/CFS, is now live on the NHS Learning Hub. This session provides practical, evidence-based guidance to support people living with severe and very severe ME/CFS, and has universal access. There is also an additional version of this module, which is only available to healthcare professionals, and includes clinical guidance on severe and very severe ME/CFS.

NHS England has already started its work on co-designing resources, including a ‘template service specification’ for mild/moderate ME/CFS services, to support systems to improve services for mild and moderate ME/CFS. NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care have met with a group of key stakeholders to move this work on. This template will now include reference to severe ME/CFS.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
91156
Session
2024-26
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
ME/CFS Health services
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk