Perhaps if you had told us GPs face being ranked on their performance with respect to ME/CFS would this have been more relevant..
It has been my experience, and the experiences of most of the patients on this forum, that if you want to get a diagnosis for any ailment, whether the point of contact is an ambulance bearer, doctor, nurse, emergency ward, hospital, then you do not tell them you have me/cfs, otherwise you risk being diagnosed with 'anxiety', or some derivative.
I have had treatment and testing withheld for this reason. It is not an isolated case, it is a culture. In the UK, in the rest of Europe, here in Australia.
I will partially agree with you there but will say that there is always a concern with missing something else thats underlying even if they think cfs/me is some type of depression/anxiety and this is within the prehospital and emergency departments(it should be). It depends on the symptoms presenting, something like chest pain, shortness of breath even just feeling generally unwell there is always a baseline set of observations and if abnormal will investigate and treat further. chest pains should all get an ecg and maybe a blood test, breathing issues a doc should listen to chest sounds and minimum of oxygen saturation test done which is simple and non-invasive. If one is generally unwell its not uncommon to have an infection so a high temp is a reasonable first assessment to do and depending on other symptoms a doc may authorize blood and urine test. Blood pressure and pulse rates are just standard.
But in this emergency setting i guess they are looking for life threatening or potentially life threatening as well as easing suffering in the short term. Outside of this people are referred back to their gp's or another specialist etc or maybe told to wait things out and if things worsen to comeback to hospital.
I guess what im saying is that if u have certain symptoms that u think could be life threatening ie related to your heart, breathing blood pressure, conscious level etc then dont put off going to see a doctor or a hospital. The above basics should be done depending on the symptoms present, but most clinicians with any type of experience have probably underestimated certain patients because of some other previous medical issues be it anxiety depression, cfs etc and run some routine tests and suprisingly to them have found something unrelated to their past history, maybe some type of heart arrythmia, maybe anemia or a urinary tract infection, the list goes on.
Maybe the best advice i could give is to not mention cfs/me but just concentrate on your immediate symptoms first and get the basics ruled out, maybe instead of saying u have cfs/me, say u have felt run down for several months of post viral fatigue for a few months. I think this gives them a clear mind without any bias??
The thing is if it is a cfs/me type symptom then theres not alot they are going to do anyway other then supportive treatment which they would probably treat without mentioning cfs/me, example if u had some type of pain that they couldnt really explain, they should give u some type of pain relief or if your blood pressure is high then they should treat this. if u have a urinary tract infection then they will treat you with antibiotics.
The problem with paramedics and emergency hospital staff is they dont really see conditions as a priority unless u have a broken bone sticking out your skin or your having symptoms of a heart attack. I guess they are geared towards emergency/ immediate life threatening stuff, so when its ruled out i guess they can come across as unempathetic but its probably more related to them standing down from being on high alert. But in saying all that, some people in emergency medicine can be a bunch of arseholes, but i do think its a minority as its just not their role or specialty looking after chronic ongoing conditions. There are enough people though working in this field though who probably have chronic conditions that will understand you and realise that chronic conditions can just wear you out, they just arent geared to treating it.
cfs/me should really be treated by a gp and with the help of particular specialists, should?? I think just finding an empathetic gp who is willing to help treat you symptomatically is really the best many can hope for and good to always keep them onside but have to realise their limitations. But still look further afield to find a doc who may have more expertise? Easier said then done. We probably get more help from doing our own research and getting info from forums like this.
Theres no 100% cures, but hey, theres no harm in looking. Even a needle in a hay stack gets found once in awhile.
cheers!!