360° audit of services for people with MS - 2006 survey
MS Trust / RCP Survey of MS Health Services
In partnership with the Royal College of Physicians, the MS Trust commissioned a survey of MS health services to help us better understand what is available and to identify the needs of people with MS.
The survey was conducted within six Strategic Health Authorities:
- North West London
- Greater Manchester
- Dorset/Somerset
- Kent
- Birmingham
- County Durham
By sampling those areas, with their mix of urban and rural populations and with varying health budgets, a picture was built of what is happening to people with MS within the whole of the NHS (hospitals, GPs, therapists etc).
The report concludes that: "Current service provision is of low quality and inadequate quantity. Most of the seven recommendations made in the NICE Guidelines are not complied with at present, there are few plans to change this, and the standard of data available within organisations would not allow them to monitor compliance or undertake change."
Professor Dame Carol Black, President of the Royal College of Physicians, said: "The findings suggest that delivery of services for the care of people with MS, a common long term and often disabling neurological condition has commanded low priority in the NHS.
"This audit is disappointing for patients, who looked for improvements following the issue of NICE guidelines. It reminds us that merely setting service standards, without adequate arrangements for quality assurance, falls short of what patients are right to expect. Their needs will not be met without a stronger determined drive for service improvement, with means of measuring service performance, and identifiable accountability."
Christine Jones, Chief Executive of the MS Trust said: "MS is ignored because it is difficult. As a member of the guidelines development group, I saw first hand how everyone gave of their time to develop a blueprint for excellent MS services. It is therefore hugely frustrating to see so little progress.
"There are some pockets of excellent practice but services for people with MS are, in the main, in a very sorry state and we can ill-afford to waste two years in putting the situation right."
Royal College of Physicians, MS Trust.
NHS services for people with multiple sclerosis: a national survey.
London:RCP;2006.
