'Alarming' Shortage Of NHS Neurologists, Says Repo

[bongme]

hi

Ananova

Thursday March 14, 2002 4:47 PM

Thousands more specialist brain doctors are urgently needed to bring Britain's health service up to European standards, experts are warning.

The UK's neurological services are patchy with a four-fold increase in doctors required to ensure a comprehensive service, doctors said.

Launching a new report, the Association of British Neurologists (ABN) found a lack of specialists for brain-related conditions such as stroke which has led to an "alarming inequality" in healthcare.

Most patients admitted to hospital as an emergency with brain-related disorders, such as stroke, epilepsy, meningitis and encephalitis will never be seen by a neurologist, it found.

Currently there are around 350 consultant neurologists in the UK which gives a rate of 1 to 177,000 in the population, the report, which is endorsed by the Royal College of Physicians warned.

This compares extremely unfavourably to the continent where the average European value ranges between 1 to 18,000 and 1 to 35,000.

The ABN is calling on the Government and health authorities to increase the number of neurologists from 350 to 1400 over the next 10 years in order to establish a UK-wide and fully comprehensive service.

"There is an urgent need for a rate of expansion in the numbers of neurologists that is far greater than the current figure of between 5% and 7%," the report concluded. To achieve a ratio of 1 to 43,000 would require an expansion rate of 18% per annum."

The report shows that within the NHS, Northern Ireland, Wales, Trent, the Midlands and the South West have the lowest number of neurologists, each serving a population of well over 200,000 in their regions.

There are just 0.3 neurologists per 100,000 of the population in Wales and the South West, figures for December 2000 show. The highest figure is for the North East Thames region where the proportion is three times higher at 0.9.

Bongme