We have today sent the following letter to the Chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners about their inaccurate classification of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. 

See original publication

Dear Professor Field
 
The ME Association would be grateful if you could explain why the Royal College of General Practitioners has decided to classify CFS as a mental health disorder in your publication 'RCGP Curriculum Statement 13: Care of People with Mental Health Problems'
 
The current WHO classification for ME and PVFS is in section G93:3 of ICD10 - the neurological disease section.  CFS is indexed to this G93:3 classification.
 
The UK Department of Health has made it clear that they accept this classification, as did Ann Keen (Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health Services at the Department of Health) when she spoke to the ME All Party Parliamentary Group at the House of Commons on 22 January 2008.
 
I would also point out that the Read Code for CFS is F286 (F is used to denote nervous system diseases) and that Read Codes for mental health disorders start with the letter E.  None of the other 'mental health disorders in primary care' listed in Appendix 3 of the Curriculum Statement have a code starting with F.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Dr Charles Shepherd
Hon Medical Adviser, ME Association
 
4 Top Angel
Buckingham
MK18 1TH