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Ron Davis Statement on NICE pausing new guidelines
NICE has abruptly paused the publication of it’s new guidelines for ME/CFS, arguing that those who are treating patients need to agree with the guidelines. This is a false argument. Medical advice must follow the evidence and not personal beliefs or political positions. If doctors treating ME/CFS patients do not agree with evidence based guidelines, they should not be treating these patients. This is why we have guidelines. When guidelines contain treatments that don’t work, or are harmful, then the guidelines should be rejected. We must have faith that the guidelines are in the best interest of the patient. NICE has completed their objective scientific review. It is a travesty that NICE is being influenced by people with vested interest in maintaining their beliefs in treatments that have long been shown to lack evidence supporting them and have been shown to be harmful to patients. If NICE does not stick to their mission of unbiased evidence based guidelines, then it will lose its credibility. It is time for the UK to join the rest of the scientific community and publish guidelines that are consistent with the evidence. Their influence is crucial, and every day that the old guidelines stand, physicians all over the world continue to recommend inappropriate and harmful treatment for ME/CFS patients.
NICE has abruptly paused the publication of it’s new guidelines for ME/CFS, arguing that those who are treating patients need to agree with the guidelines. This is a false argument. Medical advice must follow the evidence and not personal beliefs or political positions. If doctors treating ME/CFS patients do not agree with evidence based guidelines, they should not be treating these patients. This is why we have guidelines. When guidelines contain treatments that don’t work, or are harmful, then the guidelines should be rejected. We must have faith that the guidelines are in the best interest of the patient. NICE has completed their objective scientific review. It is a travesty that NICE is being influenced by people with vested interest in maintaining their beliefs in treatments that have long been shown to lack evidence supporting them and have been shown to be harmful to patients. If NICE does not stick to their mission of unbiased evidence based guidelines, then it will lose its credibility. It is time for the UK to join the rest of the scientific community and publish guidelines that are consistent with the evidence. Their influence is crucial, and every day that the old guidelines stand, physicians all over the world continue to recommend inappropriate and harmful treatment for ME/CFS patients.