Under NHS guidelines, the family doctor or General Practitioner (GP) is usually your first point of contact.
GPs form part of the primary healthcare team.
Sometimes your GP may refer you to a specialist. A visit to a specialist is known as secondary care and can only be arranged through your GP.
Depending on your symptoms, you may meet a number of healthcare professionals, including physiotherapists, occupational therapists, clinical psychologists or other mental health professionals, nurses and dieticians.
An overview of the kind of NHS support available can be found in our booklet, All about M.E.
Help with personal care, such as washing and dressing, is usually arranged through local authority social services or social work departments.
If you have a complaint about NHS treatment, go to the NHS website for your part of the UK to find out about their complaints procedures (see the links on the right).
Read past articles about M.E.and the NHS in our InterAction archive.
