IiME article "The UK CMO 1998-2010: A Testament to Failure"

[fred]

Reposted from Invest in ME website

http://www.investinme.org/Article-320 CMO Testament to Failure.htm

Above all others the office of the Chief Medical Officer in the UK ought to be there to protect the public. It says just this on the Department of Health web site.

The outgoing CMO, Sir Liam Donaldson, has presided over the health of the nation during a period for which better science has been available, more funding has been provided to the National Health Service and where it has been entirely possible to begin treating some sub groups of ME patients with treatments which could alleviate or remove the symptoms of ME.

The CMO Working Group of 2002 produced recommendations yet not one of those recommendations has been achieved (click here). Ironically he was knighted in the same year.

Sir Liam Donaldson's biography states that he "regularly gives keynote addresses at conferences in the United Kingdom and around the world" - yet he has declined to speak or attend at each of the five International ME/CFS conferences organised and hosted by Invest in ME, all of them taking place just a few hundred metres from his office in London.

The fact that nothing has changed during this twelve years for people with ME and their families leaves the outgoing Chief Medical Officer in a position where failure is, and has been, an acceptable option.

Our description of the performance of Sir Liam Donaldson as Chief Medical Officer was made in June 2008 [Accountability - The CMO - A Time for Change - click here] - where we described the performance of Chief Medical Officer of the UK as ineffective, lacking in leadership and unwilling to engage with ME patients or their carers who are crying out for change.

The story below could be used to describe the situation in the UK experienced by many people with ME today. In fact, this was written 10 years ago - near the beginning of Sir Liam Donaldson's tenure as Chief Medical Officer.

This story illustrates the failure of a nation's Chief Medical Officer - a Testament to Failure.

Click here for the story.
http://www.investinme.org/Article-320 CMO Testament to Failure.htm

 

[Gerwyn]

Reposted from Invest in ME website

http://www.investinme.org/Article-320 CMO Testament to Failure.htm

Above all others the office of the Chief Medical Officer in the UK ought to be there to protect the public. It says just this on the Department of Health web site.

The outgoing CMO, Sir Liam Donaldson, has presided over the health of the nation during a period for which better science has been available, more funding has been provided to the National Health Service and where it has been entirely possible to begin treating some sub groups of ME patients with treatments which could alleviate or remove the symptoms of ME.

The CMO Working Group of 2002 produced recommendations yet not one of those recommendations has been achieved (click here). Ironically he was knighted in the same year.

Sir Liam Donaldson's biography states that he "regularly gives keynote addresses at conferences in the United Kingdom and around the world" - yet he has declined to speak or attend at each of the five International ME/CFS conferences organised and hosted by Invest in ME, all of them taking place just a few hundred metres from his office in London.

The fact that nothing has changed during this twelve years for people with ME and their families leaves the outgoing Chief Medical Officer in a position where failure is, and has been, an acceptable option.

Our description of the performance of Sir Liam Donaldson as Chief Medical Officer was made in June 2008 [Accountability - The CMO - A Time for Change - click here] - where we described the performance of Chief Medical Officer of the UK as ineffective, lacking in leadership and unwilling to engage with ME patients or their carers who are crying out for change.

The story below could be used to describe the situation in the UK experienced by many people with ME today. In fact, this was written 10 years ago - near the beginning of Sir Liam Donaldson's tenure as Chief Medical Officer.

This story illustrates the failure of a nation's Chief Medical Officer - a Testament to Failure.

Click here for the story.
http://www.investinme.org/Article-320 CMO Testament to Failure.htm

In UK politics if you fail you usually get a knighthood.If you make mistakes a normal 5 year old would not make then the house of Lords is the place for you.We should look forward to Lord Donaldson fairly soon!

 

[fred]

"The Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, declined the invitation to visit the Whittemore-Peterson Institute in Nevada, USA, stating that he has not time in his diary. He has also declined the invitation to attend the opening of the WPI in 2010 by stating that it is too far in the future. IiME have responded by requesting the next available free date in Sir Liam's calendar so that the WPI invitation may then be re-arranged. We have had no reply as yet."

http://www.investinme.org/IIME Newsletter June 08.htm#Accountability_-_The_CMO_-_A_Time_for_Change_

Amusing digression on the same page: a write up of a debate in the House of Lords.

Baroness Tonge:
"My Lords, when I was a student, I had a professor who, when asked the cause of a very difficult disease, would usually reply, "Nobody knows, tiddly-pom". I suspect that ME falls into the "nobody knows" category."

Tiddly-pom.

 

[biophile]

Unless we see serious signs of the authorities mobilising their resources, the next 12 years aren't looking much better. How many more years will they talk about "taking CFS/ME more seriously" before they actually do it?

 

[fred]

Unless we see serious signs of the authorities mobilising their resources, the next 12 years aren't looking much better. How many more years will they talk about "taking CFS/ME more seriously" before they actually do it?

Until the blood supply becomes the issue.

 

[Min]

In UK politics if you fail you usually get a knighthood.If you make mistakes a normal 5 year old would not make then the house of Lords is the place for you.We should look forward to Lord Donaldson fairly soon!

Sir Peter Spencer KCB is Chief Executive of Action for M.E.; his previous job was Procurement Officer for the Ministry of Defence (Prof Simon Wessely is their Head of Department of Psychological Medicine ) at the time of the purchase of the Chinook helicopters:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20080641317988

"The Ministry of Defence has been accused of a "gold standard cock-up" over eight Chinook helicopters ordered 13 years ago which have yet to see active service despite costing taxpayers almost 500m..."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jun/04/military.defence

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...of-uks-grounded-helicopter-fleet-1750094.html

and see also:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jun/04/military.defence1


"Conceived in 1983 to patrol the skies of western Europe against Soviet MiGs, the RAF finally took delivery of its first Eurofighters in 2003. They were four and a half years late, and came 14 years after the cold war ended. MPs were originally told the British cost of the project would be 7bn. The final cost was thought to be around 19.7bn.

In 2006, the MoD chief of defence procurement, Sir Peter Spencer, described the project as a "charity". "

 

[fred]

In 2006, the MoD chief of defence procurement, Sir Peter Spencer, described the project as a "charity". "

It's a shame he doesn't treat his current charity like a project.