Damning report on neurology services published
The National Audit Office (NAO) has today published a report severely criticising the provision of health services to people with neurological conditions living in England.
The Services for people with neurological conditions report found that between 2005 and 2010 there has been an increase in spending of nearly £1billion for neurological services, but the Department of Health has no understanding of how this extra money has benefited patients.
Despite the increased funding, the report found there are still significant problems with services, including long delays in receiving a diagnosis, lack of access to information and care that is fragmented and poorly coordinated. This poor care has resulted in unnecessary emergency hospital admissions - in 2010 emergency admissions to hospital had increased by 32 per cent for neurological patients, compared to 17 per cent for the NHS as a whole. As well as putting a significant strain on the NHS, this has a severe impact on the well-being of patients and their families.
The MND Association was instrumental in initiating the NAO report. We worked very hard behind the scenes to persuade the NAO to carry out a ‘value for money’ study of services for people with neurological conditions and were delighted when they agreed to our recommendation. The report echoes what we have been saying about services for people with MND for a long time - in many areas services do not deliver high quality care for people with MND and their families.
Farah Nazeer, Director of External Affairs at the MND Association said: “Today’s damning report highlights how money alone cannot improve patient care. The increase in emergency admissions is costing the NHS greatly. It is also costing the lives of people with MND who are spending what little time they have left in hospital, often against their wishes.
“We know that the monthly cost of caring for someone with motor neurone disease is £16,000, when you factor in costly emergency admissions to hospital then this figure can triple. We are sitting on a neurological time bomb and we need urgent national action now.”
We are calling on the Government to implement changes recommended in the report and create a targeted and properly resourced national strategy for neurological conditions. The strategy would help to reduce the suffering endured by people with neurological conditions by improving the quality of care and deliver value for the public purse.
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