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Save millions by preventing unnecessary seizures says NSE
The National Society for Epilepsy (NSE) awaits the response of the Department of Health (DH) to see how it will implement ‘efficiency savings’ to the NHS of GBP15 billion to GBP20 billion, following the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).
While the government has promised in the CSR that it will increase NHS spending by 0.4% annually over the next four years, it has also recently set out billions of pounds of ‘efficiency savings’ that are expected to have a serious impact on NHS services.
“We have been saying for years that the inefficiency within the NHS in terms of epilepsy services is a disgrace,” said NSE chief executive Graham Faulkner.
“Because the government has historically turned a blind eye to problems within NHS epilepsy services, we still have a dramatic lack of epilepsy specialist neurologists – there are only about 30 in England. This means that people don’t get the right diagnosis – and so are taking unnecessary or wrong drugs or suffering seizures that they don’t need to. Apart from the cost to the people and their families, this is costing the NHS millions each year on emergency treatment and extra GP and outpatient appointments which it doesn’t need to spend.
“Will the government step up to the mark and take this opportunity to actually make the NHS work for people with epilepsy, and save the NHS millions of pounds in the process?’ asks Graham Faulkner. “All it takes is to make sure that people see the right specialist in the first place.”
The report Wasted Money Wasted Lives by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Epilepsy estimates that £134 million a year is spent on needless anti epileptic drugs alone – for people who don’t even have epilepsy. That’s 74,000 people taking drugs they don’t need.
Overall, the report says, £189m is needlessly spent. It highlights how the lack of epilepsy specialists leads to a vicious cycle of inadequate treatment for people with epilepsy - leading to 69,000 suffering unnecessary seizures.
“Why not spend money on improving epilepsy services, so that people get the right treatment and their medical costs are reduced?” said Graham. “It’s called investing a little up front, to accumulate a huge benefit and cost saving to the NHS. It’s not rocket science, and it’s something completely within the gift of the government to achieve.
“Recent interest in epilepsy by new MPs Paul Maynard and Laura Sandys has given us some hope that, at last, somebody might be listening to the sound economic arguments that epilepsy charities have been making for years,” said Graham, who is also vice-chair of the Joint Epilepsy Council (JEC).
The impact of changes to the benefit system is not clear. Those on Disability Living Allowance will not be directly affected by the CSR, except for those living in residential care. “As a provider of residential care for those people with complex and disabling epilepsy who need 24 hour care, we are concerned about this, and will be making our views known directly to government,” said Graham.
The government’s response to a review of the Work Capability Assessment in relation to the Employment and Support Allowance is still awaited and remains of concern to people with epilepsy.
The social care budget will receive an extra GBP1 billion a year from NHS funds as part of an overall GBP2 billion of extra funding every year by 2014/15 to support social care. But, once more, this is set against a backdrop of 26% cuts in central government funding to local councils over the next four years.
The government has also said it plans to expand the use of personal budgets for people with long term conditions.
Full details of the government’s spending review are available at www.direct.gov.uk.
