ME: Treatment and Research

Debate between Michelle Donelan and David Drew

Thursday 21st June 2018 Westminster Hall

[Dr David Drew (Stroud) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am delighted to take part in this important debate. I thank the hon. Member for Glasgow North West (Carol Monaghan) for introducing it and all other hon. Members who supported the application for a three-hour debate; we will certainly need it with the number of hon. Members who wish to speak.

I owe my knowledge of ME to friends who have suffered from it and, particularly, to constituents who have written poignant letters to me about their experiences and the hurt they have suffered when people just would not recognise that they had a condition—whether we call it ME, chronic fatigue syndrome or a post-viral condition. All those different elements make ME a problematic condition.

I mainly want to thank my constituent and friend, Dr Charles Shepherd, who is in the Gallery and to whom I mainly owe the few words I will say. He has advised the ME Association for many years now. Along with Dr Chaudhuri, he has written a book on ME. Hon. Members might like to go through it if they have a few moments; I went through it again last night. They will be staggered by some of the things that they did not know. However, I have to say that it is not the easiest read. It is very technical and very medical, but this is an incredibly technical and medical disease, which is why we do not know enough about it.

I will try to avoid the points made by other Members, but I make no apologies for going through some of the points made to me by Dr Shepherd. I also mention Sarah Reed—the wife of Andy Reed, the former Member for Loughborough—who has for a long period of time also suffered from ME and has been in touch with me about it on many occasions.

On medical education, it is quite clear that GPs, in particular, have no experience in how to diagnose this disease, so there is a need for training at both undergraduate and postgraduate level to make sure that doctors become more aware of what the condition looks like and the ways in which they could begin to treat it. That continuing lack of medical education adds to the misery that our constituents have faced. Dare I say it, it behoves the Minister—I know he will be tied in what he can say—to say something about the training programmes that we should expect our doctors to go through. It is vital that ME is understood not only by junior doctors but all the way up through the profession. We have understood, from some of the arguments on research, that there are still those who are not necessarily as keenly aware of ME.

[Michelle Donelan]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that this is about awareness not only among doctors but among teachers, employers and the wider community? The lack of knowledge in those sectors exacerbates the conditions that those with ME suffer from, and that causes great distress.

[Dr Drew]

I agree, and the hon. Lady makes her point strongly. All I will say is that I will concentrate mainly on the medical side of things. However, everybody needs to be more aware because of the numbers—two in every 1,000 people are thought to suffer from the condition.

We have heard a lot about the PACE trial and the need for NICE to rewrite its guidelines, so I do not really want to labour those points, other than to say that it is not helpful that cognitive behavioural therapy and graded exercise therapy are still suggested as the appropriate way forward after ME diagnosis. We know for all sorts of reasons that that is not so. I am sure the Minister heard that and will want to comment on it.

Parliamentary Constituencies (Amendment) Bill

Debate between Michelle Donelan and David Drew

2nd reading: House of Commons
Friday 1st December 2017 Commons Chamber

[Dr Drew]

As someone who has stood in seven parliamentary elections and knows his area rather better than the hon. Gentleman, I will take that as a slight rather than a positive intervention.

Location matters. It matters because geography matters, ties to an area matter, local authority representation matters, and the relationship with other constituencies matters. I could not represent any other area. No other area would have me! I am quite simply the MP for Stroud, the area I have always stood for. I would never stand for anywhere else because I believe that that is what I am best at, and I think I have done a reasonable job. I have been elected four times and lost three times, so, hey, I am ahead at the moment. It did not help my predecessor that in preparation for the boundary changes he moved his constituency office. That went down rather badly in the constituency and may not have helped his cause when we stood against each other again, as we have done on a number of occasions, for election earlier this year. Geographical representation has always had a stronger hold on the way in which we decide on the electoral relationships than purely the numbers. If we want to do that, we might as well go to the Soviet system, where the constituencies are not even named—there is just a number and a way in which certain people are put in place. I believe in local representation and I will always argue that case.

As we have heard, in 2015 the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee savaged the Government’s approach to reducing the number of MPs. It argued very strongly that we should not just look at the numbers and proposed a 10% variance. I would still adhere to that, because I do not mind representing more people. I would rather that the people I represent—

[Michelle Donelan]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Dr Drew]

I will not give way now, because other people want to speak.

I would rather that the people in the district also have a relationship to the constituency. If that means that I have more electors, so be it. That can be reflected in some additional help with case work and so on. It is important that we tie these relationships together, and anything that undermines them is a bad thing.

[Michelle Donelan]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way on that point?

[Dr Drew]

Very briefly.

[Michelle Donelan]

Does the hon. Gentleman concede, though, that it is impossible for an MP to give the same service as another MP who has half the number of constituents, and that he is actually doing down our democracy by suggesting that we continue to increase the variation between constituencies?

[Dr Drew]

The honest answer is no. When I talk to colleagues who represent urban constituencies, it is clear that their casework, which consists of much more on the immigration front than mine would, will take them an awful lot longer than I would spend on many of the cases that I have to deal with. That does not mean that I end up with an easier road; I just think it is very important that we understand that constituencies have different profiles and we should reflect that.

I want to bring my remarks to a speedy conclusion, because I—