Our purpose

The primary purpose of the Neurological Alliance is to campaign for better services for people with neurological conditions and their carers. We represent neurological charities in England to present a united voice to achieve better health and support services for people with neurological conditions.

For the latest information on our campaigning progress, go to our Events and Updates pages.

Why do we need to campaign for better services?

Services are not joined-up

People with neurological conditions often have complex needs. Those needs will almost certainly vary over time, so patients need high quality joined up services. But all too frequently, our member organisations still hear the same tales from patients, carers and medical professionals about fragmented services of patchy quality.

There are not enough neurologists or specialist neurological
nurses

Currently there are only approximately 350 whole time equivalent neurologists in the United Kingdom – that’s 1 neurologist for every 170,000 people living in the UK. This compares very unfavourably with other European countries, where on average there is one neurologist for every 18,000 to 35,000 members of the population.

Patients don’t get the information they require

Our recent Taking Control campaign, in collaboration with the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries and Ask About Medicines, revealed that useful information is not getting into the hands of the people who need it most. 70% of people with a neurological condition were given no advice at diagnosis about where to seek further information on their condition.