Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ensure that all patients with a neurological condition receive support to help (a) manage their condition and (b) prevent their condition from progressing.

NHS England has established the Neuroscience Transformation Programme, a multi-year, clinically-led programme aimed at improving specialised adult neuroscience services in England and developing a new model of integrated care for neurology services. The Neuroscience Transformation Programme seeks to support commissioners through establishing a ‘what good looks like’ for specialised neuroscience services for a local population.

NHS England has also established the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) national programme, which is designed to improve the treatment and care of patients through in-depth, clinically-led review of specialties to examine how things are currently being done and how they could be improved.

The GIRFT National Specialty Report on Neurology, published in September 2021, focuses on improving access to care and ensuring services are available close to patients’ homes where feasible. The report highlights differences in how services are delivered and highlights examples of local good practice to improve patient services nationally.

To support systems to understand the priorities in neurology care and improve service quality, NHS England has developed the RightCare Progressive Neurological Conditions Toolkit. The Toolkit supports improvements to pathways for progressive neurological patients, ensuring that commissioners focus on quicker and more accurate diagnoses and increasing the availability of neurorehabilitation, reablement, and psychosocial support.