Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a framework model for functional neurological disorder (FND) care, including (a) FND care pathways, (b) the requirement for multidisciplinary teams trained in FND, (c) follow-up appointments for patients, and (d) mandatory training for (i) GPs, (ii) neurologists, and (ii) A&E staff.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) included information on functional neurological disorder (FND) in its guideline Suspected neurological conditions: recognition and referral, code NG127, which covers symptoms and the appropriate referral pathways. The NICE Clinical Knowledge Summaries also feature a detailed topic on FND, offering information on diagnosis and management. The guideline and Clinical Knowledge Summary are available, respectively, at the following two links:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng127

https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/functional-neurological-disorder/

We will publish a 10 Year Workforce Plan to ensure that the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, and with the right skills, to deliver the best care for patients, including those with FND, when they need it. We have recently published a call for evidence to gather views from stakeholders on the specific professions, roles, skills, and training needed to implement the reforms outlined in our 10-Year Health Plan for England.

More widely, the Elective Reform Plan has committed to reforming outpatient care, which will improve outcomes for patients with FND, through:

¾ clinical pathway reform, by transforming clinical pathways to build on the opportunity to deliver more activity in the community and increase the opportunities for patients to be referred straight to diagnostic tests;

¾ reducing unnecessary follow up care by using remote monitoring and widening access to Patient Initiated Follow Up so that more patients can have choice and control over if and when they require follow up care, freeing up appointments for patients who need them most; and

¾ focusing on the smaller aspects of service delivery than can make a big difference to productivity, by focusing on waiting list validation being properly funded as a form of activity, better use of outpatient clinical capacity, and making better use of clinic templates and job planning so clinicians have the right balance of activity to meet demand.