People with neurological conditions such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease are being neglected by the NHS, according to a report by an alliance of charities representing patients. .
The Neurological Alliance says that poor care is resulting in too many of the eight million patients in England with a neurological problem being admitted to hospital as emergencies, experiencing delays in having their condition diagnosed, and receiving too little information about what is wrong with them. The Neurological Alliance is a group of more than 70 charities that work with people who have suffered damage to their brain, spinal column or nerves, either as a result of illness or injury. Its members also include charities representing those with motor neurone disease and rarer conditions such as dystonia. The report concludes that the NHS is not taking patients with neurological conditions seriously enough, and warns that the health reforms will do nothing to help this problem. The report states that policy levers for improving care in the new NHS landscape are not being mobilised to support improvements to neurological services. Five of the six key policy levers, including national outcome strategies and the commissioning outcome framework, are not currently being used to improve services for people with neurological conditions. This is despite neurological services taking up more than 5% of overall NHS spending, which makes them the service’s eighth largest category of spending, and the fact that one in six people are affected. The report urged the new NHS bodies, which are in the process of being created, to tackle ‘the legacy of neglect which has resulted in unacceptable variations in outcomes and higher than necessary costs’
