Get tweeting for Experiences of Care Week 20th-24th March!

This week is Experience of Care Week, which is a week for the NHS to focus on improving the experience of patients. You can join in by sharing your experiences and opinions with the hashtag #ExpOfCare.

NHS prescription charges survey

In August last year I wrote about the Prescription Charges Coalition campaign to make prescription charges fairer for those with long term conditions. There’s now a survey to help with the campaign.

Take part in the Yorkshire Health Study

Here’s an opportunity to get M.E. and other long term conditions you may have on the map if you live in Yorkshire and there are some interesting results so far on chronic pain and health inequalities.

Research and healthcare must involve people with M.E. to move forward

There’s a gaping chasm between what’s provided and what people with M.E. need. From where I’m sitting, as a patient first and health professional second, the only way to get what we need is to collaborate. In this blog I show the ways patients are becoming more involved in research and healthcare.

Making decisions about our health

Research shows that if we make decisions about our health ourselves, there will be better outcomes for us. In this blog post I look at UK health policy on this and what to consider when making health decisions.

Prescription Charges Coalition campaign for free prescriptions

A campaign has been launched by a group of organisations calling for an end to prescription charges in England for working people with long term conditions.

What can you do to help someone with M.E. feel less isolated?

Find out what you can do right now to make someone you know with M.E. feel more included and less isolated.

Giving feedback about our healthcare: The NHS Friends and Family Test

I’ve written this blog to explain what the NHS Friends and Family Test is, and how we can use this to give feedback on our experiences of using the NHS.

Best Foot Forward: How to make a difference with positive campaigning

This is the 50th blog post since I started my blog in May! My very first post was about some positive M.E. awareness news from Norway, so I’d like to mark the occasion with a blog post about positive campaigning.

Summary of chances to tell UK health decision-makers what we need for M.E.

I’ve blogged about three ways we can have our say about M.E. treatment in the UK, so I thought I’d make a summary.

Help shape research in the NHS!

The UK’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is asking for suggestions from patients, carers and members of the public for tests and treatments that need to be researched.

Two big opportunities for people with M.E. to engage with policymakers

There are now 2 opportunities for the UK general public to have our say about treatment in the NHS: the Accelerated Access Review and NHS Citizen Gather. These aren’t exclusive to M.E. but I think they’re opportunities we should take.

Patients invited to engage in government review to speed up use of new treatments and tests

Today sees the launch of the online public engagement part of a review to find ways of speeding up access to innovative new drugs, devices and diagnostics for patients in the UK[1]. The patient champion for the review urges patients and patient representatives to get involved.

We believe you, so crack on with it and collaborate!

I’ll be writing my blog posts for people with M.E. and for my colleagues in the Pharmacy profession based on the facts and I will assume (take for granted) that everyone automatically knows M.E. is a neurological illness.

M.E. awareness news from Norway – PM gave opening speech at awareness event

I’ve started off my new blog with a “good news” story about M.E. awareness from Norway as this is a fitting end to a successful M.E. awareness month.