Journal Article

040  Service evaluation of acute neurology referrals in the regional neuroscience centre

Grundmann, Alexander, Ng, Yi Shiau, Duddy, Martin, Anderson, Kirstie

2022

Overview

BackgroundNeurological disorders account for 20% of acute medical admissions and 7% of GP consulta- tions. We evaluated our acute neurology service with the catchment area of 3 million people. Moreover, we investigated the impact on the service during the COVID19 pandemic.MethodsWe identified 6618 urgent phone calls logged between March 2017 and June 2020. We performed a detailed analysis of 800 referrals: 400 in 10 weeks before and 400 in 11 weeks during the first national lockdown.ResultsReferrals were made by teaching hospitals (43%), district general hospitals (35%) and GPs (22%). The reasons for referrals were similar between hospitals and GPs: epilepsy (33% vs 30%), headache (15% vs 20%), sensory symptoms (10% vs 7%) and weakness (10% vs 8%). The outcomes of these referrals were telephone advice only (64%), neurology ward admission (9%), rapid assessment and other outpatient clinics (8% and 25% respectively). There was a threefold decrease in the number of phone calls during the initial four weeks of national lockdown. However, the patient demographics and the range of diagnoses remained overall unchanged.ConclusionsThis provides important descriptive data on demographics and outcomes for acute neurology referrals, which can be used to guide service provision and [e-mail]45

• Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group Ltd,BMJ Publishing Group LTD
• Subject: ABN Abstracts 2021 / Neurology