Dr Gerald Coakley

Professional statement

Dr Gerald Coakley is a highly experienced consultant physician based in London. He has over 20 years’ experience in the diagnosis and management of fatigue syndromes including post-viral fatigue, post-Covid 19 syndrome (“Long Covid”) and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).

He ran a weekly fatigue clinic at Keats House, St Thomas Street from 2007 to 2023. Following the successful introduction of video consulting during the pandemic, and the publication by Penguin of his book Living with ME and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Dr Coakley is now concentrating on patients with ME/CFS and related conditions, offering exclusively video consultations. His experience is that video consultations work very well for fatigue disorders, and have opened up the option of medical advice for the severely affected group who are unable to leave their homes.

To make the most efficient use of time, he recommends that any patient seeking his opinion asks their primary care physician to organise the investigations recommended in the 2021 NICE guidelines for ME/CFS to exclude general medical causes of fatigue before booking an appointment. These are: FBC, ESR, CRP, U&E, LFT, TFT, calcium and phosphate, HbA1c, ferritin, CK, coeliac screen, and urinalysis.

In selected cases, further investigation may be required such as MRI scans, sleep studies or endocrine testing, in which case Dr Coakley can either advise on which tests to request from your primary care physician or organise them at The Harley Street Clinic, for those living near the capital. After more than three decades in rheumatology, Dr Coakley is no longer offering consultations for rheumatological conditions, either in person or by video.

Dr Coakley graduated in 1989 from the Royal London Hospital Medical School and went on from his training to be awarded with an Arthritis Research Campaign Fellowship. During this Fellowship he made discoveries relating to the immunology and genetics of rheumatoid arthritis, leading to several publications in international journals and the award of a PhD by the University of London in 2000. He has published on Felty’s syndrome (a rare complication of rheumatoid arthritis), septic arthritis and ME/CFS. If you have any enquiries before booking an appointment, please contact Dr Coakley’s PA Anne Hillman at [email protected].