NCS worked with service user group CAN-DO and NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly (now NHS Kernow CCG) to make neurology services more effective and efficient. Themes included educating non-specialists and improving patient access to information.
Project impact
We brought new initiatives to the area that are making a real difference to people with neurological conditions like Parkinson’s, MS, motor neurone disease, Huntington’s, acquired brain injury and epilepsy.
Neurology care advice line
NCS identified patients needed a single point of contact to give them better access to information. Community services have since employed two advisors to give patients quick, accessible telephone support and signposting. The line is receiving around 200 calls per year, and one caller said the information they were given was ‘life-changing’.
Services directory for patients
To support people to self-manage, we worked with CAN-DO to produce a directory listing local services. They have since distributed copies to approximately 2,000 people across the county.
Parkinson’s medication: simple techniques to educate and monitor
If people with Parkinson’s admitted for other reasons aren’t able to take prescribed medication at the right time, they can be left unable to move or have distressing hallucinations. This is also costly, as patients can need a prolonged hospital stay and unplanned specialist treatment to get their condition back under control.
NCS introduced a Parkinson’s UK ‘Get it on time’ checklist to educate staff in non-neurological wards about managing patients. It prompts them to tell the Parkinson’s team about each admission and helps them to administer medication correctly.
See our full case study (below) for more on Parkinson’s service improvements.
We also ran events on neurology awareness and end-of-life care for both patients and professionals, triggered the re-commissioning of exercise classes that help people self-manage, and recommended an epilepsy data audit, particularly around expensive emergency admissions to hospital. This work is still ongoing.
