Assembly Member Paul Davies, met up with NRAS Ambassadors Vanessa Phillips and Jean Bailey-Dering (pictured) during a launch event for national Rheumatoid Arthritis Awareness Week at the National Assembly for Wales and discussed their concerns about variations in the quality of services for rheumatoid arthritis patients across Wales.
On the same day, the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS) released a major new report called Invisible Disease: Rheumatoid Arthritis and Chronic Fatigue that highlighted shocking new evidence about the high impact chronic fatigue has on people with rheumatoid arthritis and the urgent need to improve its management.
The report surveyed 1, 954 people with RA across the UK. It found that chronic fatigue is a widespread symptom with 89% of people with RA reporting that they experienced chronic fatigue, and 94% saying that their episodes of chronic fatigue lasted several hours or all day.
Paul Davies AM said: “I was delighted to attend the national RA Awareness Week event to help raise the profile of this chronic autoimmune disease which affects so many people in Wales. The findings in the new NRAS report about the impact of chronic fatigue are truly shocking. I was amazed to hear that 690,000 people in the UK have rheumatoid arthritis and it’s costing the NHS approximately £560 million a year. I hope that the message of this event gets through and for my part; I will continue to raise this issue at the Assembly at every available opportunity. It’s time for the Welsh Government to redouble its efforts and start tackling the variations in management of this serious disease across Wales.”
