MAGICAL MEDICINE: HOW TO MAKE AN ILLNESS ... - Invest in ME

260
especially concerned with long‐term disability from the perspective of Government, service providers and
insurance companies. In the PRISMA company information, Simon Wessely is listed as a Corporate
Officer; he is a member of the Supervisory Board, and in order of seniority, he is higher than the Board of
Management. Is it possible that Professor Wessely is recommending a management programme for
“CFS/ME” patients which is known to be positively harmful for those with ME and which is provided by a
company of whose Supervisory Board he is a member? However, on 28 th July 2007 Simon Darnley , General
Manager for Prisma Health (sdarnley@prismahealth.com) wrote to a correspondent: “I would like to confirm
that Professor Simon Wessely is not a corporate officer with the Prisma Health Group and in fact does not hold any
position within the company at all. I am not sure where you heard this but it is not true”.
The previous year, the same Simon Darnley from King’s (who has responsibility for supervising the Prisma
assessment and treatment programmes for all clients referred by insurance companies) gave Workshop 9 at
the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies Congress in Warwick, in which he
said: “There is increasing focus on Return to Work with the success of programmes such as…the privately funded
Prisma Programme. Increasing numbers of CBT therapists are involved through these programmes in helping people
back to work…..However, with clients who are not currently working, clinical progress may be limited
because therapists have insufficient influence on the non‐clinical maintaining factors (e.g. financial and
employment issues)….We will explore the therapeutic implications of working within a politically
generated environment, asking ‘What happens when you mix politics with therapy’, (and) ‘How ethical is it
to use motivational techniques when the result is cessation of benefit?’ ”
(http://www.babcpconference.com/archive/conference_archive/warwick2006_2.htm#W9). This should be
borne in mind when reading the section below on “Data‐gathering for non‐clinical purposes”. It remains to
be clarified why the DWP decided to provide funding for the PACE Trial and how it justifies the expense to
the tax payer and, indeed, what the Department expects in return for such an investment of public money.
At the Trial Steering Committee meeting on 22 nd April 2004, all members present were asked to declare any
conflict of interest. No financial conflicts of interest were declared and it was agreed that no‐one present
had any other substantial or material conflict relevant to their work on the PACE Trial. Amongst those
present were Professors Peter White, Michael Sharpe and Trudie Chalder.
On 18 th June 2004, Professor Peter White wrote to members of the PACE Trial Steering Committee asking
them to declare any conflicts of interest ‐‐ particularly of a financial nature ‐‐ regarding the PACE Trial, with
the written promise that such information “will be kept securely”.
On 22 nd July 2004, Professor Mansel Aylward, who it will be recalled was then Chief Medical Adviser to the
Department for Work and Pensions and a member of the PACE Trial Steering Committee, replied saying: “It
seems I had overlooked responding to your letter of 18 June. I apologise and am remedying that here. I thus write to
confirm that I have no conflicts of interest, particularly in respect of any of a Financial (sic) nature regarding the
PACE trial”. Such a statement seems misleading, because Aylward had by then been appointed to the Chair
in Psychosocial and Disability Research at the University of Cardiff that is funded by the insurance company
UNUMProvident and by 1 st July 2004 it was public knowledge that he was to head the UNUMProvident
Centre for Psychosocial and Disability Research and that he was to take up this post when he left the DWP.
Aylward could not have been unaware that UNUMProvident was already financing his next employment,
and that UNUMProvident has one of the worst track records for denying claims made by people unable to
work because of ME/CFS.
Aylward’s job at Cardiff appears to be centred around ensuring people with “CFS/ME” are removed
from disability payment and are returned to work “with or without symptoms” according to UNUM’s
“Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Management Plan” referred to above, which clearly states: “Diagnosis:
Neurosis with a new banner”; “Attending physicians (must) work with UNUM rehabilitation services in an
effort to return the patient/claimant back to maximum functionality with or without symptoms”.
Professor Aylward seems to have an unfortunate track record in relation to accuracy – see Appendix V.