§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will cause to be sent to all doctors concerned with the granting of his Department's benefits a package of up-to-date information on myalgic encephalomyelitis with a particular emphasis on the diagnostic problems.
§ Mrs. CurrieNo. It is not the Department's policy to advise the medical profession on clinical practice.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will meet the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Association and medical organisations to discuss ways on which general practitioners could be made better informed about the complaint.
§ Mrs. CurrieIf they will write to me, I shall be pleased to receive and consider any representations from the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Association.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will take steps to discover whether people suffering from myalgic encephalomyelitis have problems obtaining his Departmant's benefits because of difficulties in diagnosing the disease.
§ Mr. ScottDecisions by the independent adjudicating authorities about entitlement to incapacity or disablement benefits depend on medical statements that the claimant is incapable of work or suffers from the prescribed level or type of disablement. Doctors providing such statements are asked to give as full and accurate a diagnosis as the available evidence allows, but inability to provide the specific cause of the claimant's symptoms would not debar him from benefit (except in the case of prescribed industrial diseases). Problems as envisaged by the right hon. Member therefore ought not to arise.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many people are receiving invalidity benefit because they are suffering from myalgic encephalomyelitis.
§ Mr. ScottThe information is not available in the form required. However, in the 1 per cent. sample of cases taken at 30 March 1985 there were seven people receiving invalidity benefit who were classified according to the international classification of diseases as cases of encephalitis, myelitis, and encephalomyelitis. As the sample and actual numbers are both small, grossing up this number may produce an inaccurate figure.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what estimates are available to him about the number of people suffering from myalgic encephalomyelitis.
§ Mrs. CurrieNo statistics about the incidence of this disease are collected centrally.