Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to improve services for people with neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s.

NHS England established the National Neurology Advisory Group (NNAG) with the Neurological Alliance which led the development of a national collaborative clinical leadership model, bringing together key stakeholders such as Parkinson’s UK, a range of national clinical leaders and patient groups with the aim to seek alignment between programmes in NHS England, arm’s length bodies and system partners and to guide the strategic development of work to improve outcomes for people living with neurological conditions including Parkinson’s.

Throughout 2018, the NNAG has organised a number of condition specific meetings with the aim of defining what good neurology looks like for patients with neurological conditions including Parkinson’s, and identifying the barriers to achieving that.

NHS England also supports local transformation through their national programmes, as highlighted in the NHS Long Term Plan. NHS RightCare has published a number of intelligence tools and resources to support reduction in unwarranted variation in neurology services. For 2018/19, 37 of 195 clinical commissioning groups submitted delivery plans that include neurological problems as improvement projects as part of their NHS RightCare programmes. Of these 37, six systems have explicitly referenced Parkinson’s in their delivery plans. Interventions in these plans primarily focus on ensuring that patients are linked into end of life care recording and reviewing effective primary prescribing of Parkinson’s disease drugs.

NHS England Specialised Commissioning has also recently approved a national review of specialised adult neuroscience services, working alongside and closely with the Getting It Right First Time programme.