Services to people with neurological conditions: progress review inquiry
Closed
What the inquiry looked at
“When the Committee reported on services to people with neurological conditions in 2012, it was concerned with the implementation of the National Service Framework for Long-term Conditions as it lagged behind those for cancer and strokes. It found "coordination of care for individuals is poor, and there is a lack of integration between health and social services...[with] a lack of neurological expertise, both in hospitals and in the community, and access to services varies widely." The Committee made six recommendations to improve leadership and accountability at the national and local level; to add key indicators and targets to the Framework; to improve the quality of services and reduce variation across the country; to improve integration of services through joint health and social care commissioning; to offer personal care plans; and finally to develop a NICE quality standard for all neurological conditions. The National Audit Office's progress review found progress against one of the recommendations has been good, progress against three of the recommendations has been poor, with moderate progress against the remaining two recommendations. The three recommendations against which the NAO judged progress to be poor were: using the clinical commissioning group outcomes indicators set, joint strategic needs assessments and health and wellbeing boards to ensure that all people with neurological conditions have appropriate access to services mandating joint health and social care commissioning of neurological services; and ensuring that everyone with a long-term neurological condition is offered a personal care plan, covering both health and social care. This inquiry challenges the Department of Health and NHS England on this poor progress in achieving better services and outcomes for people with neurological conditions.”
The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.
What it found
Over 4 million people in England have a neurological condition. Services for people with these conditions are not consistently good enough, and there remains wide variation across the country in access, outcomes and patient experience. As well as affecting patients, poor care has implications for the NHS; for example, it costs £70 million to deal with emergency admissions of epilepsy patients and many of these admissions are likely to result from shortcomings in care. Neurological services remain poorly integrated with a lack of joint commissioning of health and social care. Over 40% of people with a neurological condition do not think that local services work well together, and only 12% of people have a written care plan to help coordinate their care.
There has been some progress in implementing the recommendations that the previous Committee made in 2012, including the appointment of a national clinical director for adult neurology and some improvements in data. However, these changes have not yet led to demonstrable improvements in services and outcomes for patients. It is clear that neurological conditions are not a priority for the Department of Health (the Department) and NHS England, and we are concerned that the progress that has been made may not be sustained. We therefore intend to review the position again later in this Parliament.
What the government said
No government response is linked to this report.
How the inquiry ran
Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 15 October 2015 to 8 September 2016.
- Oral evidence 14 Dec 2015
- Report 26 Feb 2016
- Correspondence 8 Sep 2016
What it recommended
The committee's recommendations are not listed here yet. Read them in 24th Report - Services to people with neurological conditions: progress review ↗ on parliament.uk.
Evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1
- 14 Dec 2015No witnesses recordedparliament.uk ↗