Oliver Colvile – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Oliver Colvile on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what measures his Department uses to identify how often people with a diagnosis of epilepsy receive treatment from a consultant or nurse.

Jane Ellison

There are no national measures or means by which the Department monitors frequency of patients reviews, either by consultants or nurses. Guidance is issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence however this does not replace the skills and knowledge of health professionals in managing patients. The arrangements for the management and follow up of people with epilepsy are a local matter and decisions on the frequency with which patients are seen should be made on a case by case basis, taking into account the individual circumstances of each patient.

NHS England advises that the maximum wait for outpatients to receive a neurology appointment is 12 weeks currently. Additionally 92% of patients are being seen under the specified ‘Referral To Treatment’ waiting times of 18 weeks which is within the national target.

The information on the number of people with epilepsy in Plymouth is not available in the format requested.