Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she has taken to ensure that the SNOMED CT classification system used by GPs in primary care is (a) adequate and (b) used consistently for diagnosing myalgic encephalomyelitis.

The Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine - Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) is the structured clinical vocabulary for use in an electronic health record. It is a contractual requirement for all National Health Service healthcare providers in England to use SNOMED CT for capturing clinical terms, including diagnoses, within electronic patient record systems.

Within SNOMED CT, all content for myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome is contained within a single overarching code, with linked codes for mild, moderate, and severe forms. These can be used by all NHS healthcare providers, including general practitioners.

Updates to the United Kingdom’s edition of SNOMED CT are made by NHS England, with any user being able to submit requests for new or changed concepts and codes, via a central portal.