Epilepsy and supplementary nurse prescribing

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7532.2

BMJ 2006;332:2 (7 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7532.2

Editorial

Epilepsy and supplementary nurse prescribing

The NHS needs advanced nurse prescribers

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The scarcity of health professionals for managing epilepsy resultsin uncontrolled seizures, drug side effects, and psychosocialand physical morbidity.^{1 2} Of the more than 1000 deaths relatedto epilepsy in the United Kingdom each year, up to half mighthave been prevented by optimal treatment.³ Recently, NICE (theNational Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) recommendedthat specialists should diagnose and manage refractory epilepsyand that patients should have access to epilepsy nurse specialists.Moreover, the government has offered general practitioners incentivepayments to conduct annual reviews for epilepsy.

In the UK there are more than 350 000 people with epilepsy,and the NHS employs around 350 neurologists and 100 epilepsynurse specialists. Access to nurse specialists improves patients'management and reduces the need for appointments at hospitalclinics, with specialists, and with general practitioners,⁴but variations in the quality of services throughout the countrymake these outcomes unreliable. . . . [Full text of this article]

Patricia G Hosking, epilepsy nurse specialist

University College London Hospitals Trust, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London WC1N 3BG
(phosk@hotmail.com)