“England’s largest GP super partnership, the Modality Partnership, places itself at the forefront of postviral disease management and care”
This is a Doctors with M.E. news announcement of developments within Modality of public health importance and not a joint release with Modality
England’s largest GP super partnership, the Modality Partnership, with nearly half a million patients, has placed itself at the forefront of post-viral disease management in UK primary care following discussions with the Doctors with M.E. Governance Board. A leading example of best practice amongst GP surgeries and family medicine. As of January 2021, Modality’s medical directors group have agreed that their organisation will be informed that patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis will be consistently offered the seasonal influenza vaccination under the NHS GMS contract. This is due to its longstanding status as a neurological condition, which will be consistently reflected across the organisation.
Modality’s medical directors group have also been provided with current and evidence based educational resources for clinicians to meet the empirically quantified need for compliant educational resources in the field (linked resources follow this press release). These support the need for improvements in care and rigour for the profession, as outlined in recent NICE documentation and in preparation for the upcoming renewal of NICE guidelines.
With Modality’s half a million patient practice, this important precedent for frontline primary and secondary care services was already significant on a pre-pandemic basis. It adopts an additional significance for long/post covid sufferers who meet the diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS, as acknowledged by BMA, NIH, NIAID and other evidence based narratives. Shortened to ME/CFS by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence in recognition of the problematic legacy term chronic fatigue syndrome, this long-term neuro-immune disease is classified by the NHS and WHO as a neurological condition and described as “Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease” by the US National Academy of Medicine (previously the Institute of Medicine).
Statements
Dr. Richard Ramyar, Doctors with M.E. Chair and Business Strategy Advisor, welcomed this progress in UK primary care and recognises the leadership of Modality Directors:
“Modality’s proactive and open mindset has been clear throughout our discussions and is central to their success, maintaining their leading role in medical adoption of scientific best practice. ME rarely benefits from such initiatives, despite the research showing it to be more disabling than nearly all illnesses that medics face on the frontline. Adoption of the scientific consensus’ biophysical clarity is a welcome development for patients who are all too often neglected and faced with systemic lack of knowledge”
Dr K.N. Hng, Founder of Doctors with M.E., welcomed Modality’s initiative and leadership:
“Our research and the scientific consensus show lack of knowledge and education gaps regarding ME/CFS are the rule amongst colleagues. Modality’s leadership sets an example to primary care of best practice and implementation of services for ME patients. Proactive adoption of evidence based science is to be applauded.”
Educational and compliance resources
Educational resources can be found here.
These are directly linked within a document for private and public sector organisations, which outlines the legal obligations on service providers in the field of post-viral disease and current risk generation, stemming from the disease’s medico-legal status, requirements and enforcement factors.
About Doctors with M.E.
Launching imminently, Doctors with M.E. is the leading global professional association for medical practitioners and public health scientists in its field, focused on myalgic encephalomyelitis and those long-covid patients acknowledged by the NIH, NIAID and BMA who risk progress to that neuroimmune disease.
Doctors with M.E.’s imminent launch was announced on International ME Awareness Day with the blue illumination of Hever Castle, the birthplace of Anne Boleyn (link).
About Modality Partnership
Modality Partnership is an award-winning GP super-partnership that operates primary health care and community services nationally.
Founded in 2009, Modality is now the largest National GP Super-partnership in the UK, serving over 450,000 patients across 8 regions. Modality commits itself to NHS values and continues to grow, innovate and sustain services in General Practice and across the health care system (link).
List of Modality local practices
Correct as of June 2021 – up to date list can be found at Modality’s website.
Social media presence reflecting this announcement can be found at:
(Announcement previously hosted externally prior to doctorswith.me website launch)