Media
Position Statement
Managing Long Term Conditions - Audit Scotland Report
Forty thousand people in Scotland have epilepsy. This is one in 130 people. It is the most common serious neurological condition.
With the right medication up to 70% of these people can live free of seizures. Their care can quite easily be delivered in the community; by GPs at their annual review and by epilepsy specialist nurses.
It should be noted that there is a national shortage of doctors who specialise in epilepsy (whether consultants or GPs with a special interest) and not all health boards have an epilepsy specialist nurse.
For the 30% of people with epilepsy who need ongoing management part of their care can be delivered in the community by specialist nurses. These nurses could work from primary care settings; from, for example, GPs surgeries and clinics in local health centres. This could be co-ordinated by the newly established Community Health Partnerships.
In May 2007 Epilepsy Scotland held its “Kerr in the Community” conference. At this event we showed local examples of good practice in epilepsy care. In order to replicate best practice there has to be a driver for change and resources in place.
Various examples of ways to provide community based care exist. These are just a few:
- The Scottish Centre for Telehealth was established last year. Telehealth provides the ability to deliver health services in remote areas and in the community. It also allows GPs to contact specialists through IT. This should avoid unnecessary referrals to hospitals, keep down waiting lists, move care into the community and most importantly improve patient care.
- eHealth. As yet there is no unified system for patient records. With IT advances it should be possible to have a central record system. New IT measures will improve communication between GPs, consultants, nurses and pharmacists in primary and acute services.
- The Chronic Medication Service. This nationwide initiative from 2008 means that pharmacists will soon be delivering care in ways which were impossible to do before. Pharmacists will be able to fully discuss with their patients what their needs are and help them to maximise the benefits of their medication.
- Self management. Epilepsy Scotland provides a self management model through its Community Support Service. Self management is about more than health. CSS helps people with epilepsy and other community care needs to live more independently. This vital support in the community needs statutory funding.
Much of the focus of the Scottish Executive's Delivering for Health was on shifting the balance of care - from hospital to community based and from doctor to team based care. Epilepsy Scotland fully subscribes to these ideas. If care in the community is going to work there is a need to fully co-ordinate services. Managed Clinical Networks provide one way of doing this as they work across health boards. Epilepsy Scotland is helping MCNs develop patient information and to involve people affected by epilepsy in the running of health services.
“We welcome Audit Scotland's report on managing long term conditions. Living with a long term condition like epilepsy can be hard. Most of us would prefer health care and services provided on our own doorstep rather than in hospitals miles away. Improving care and support for two million Scots with long term conditions is taking a painfully long time. Through the Long Term Conditions Alliance for Scotland, Epilepsy Scotland has drawn attention to what more needs to be done. We look forward to the Scottish Executive's plans for supporting people with long term conditions to live well in their own communities. The plans should provide direction, resources and deliver better local health" Allana Parker, Communications Manager.