Quality Neurology

Quality Neurology is an audit and evaluation tool designed by the MS Society, Parkinson’s UK, MND Association and Ataxia UK. It measures how an area’s health and social care services meet national requirements .

The tool is completed by various people across several different stages:

1. Commissioners and clinicians all discussing services in the same room will agree between them how their services meet the 11 Quality Requirements of the National Service Framework for Long Term Conditions.

2. The tool will indicate visually how many of the Requirements are met.

3. The views of people affected by a long-term condition are gathered.

4. Focus groups, interviews, questionnaires or other methods can be used to obtain as many views as possible on the services available.

5. These views are matched against the responses given by the professionals in the first section, and how the requirements are met will be altered as necessary.

6. There is also a specific section on the tool which holds questions that service users and carers are asking of their local services which highlight specific issues which health and social care need to address that may not be obvious from the Quality Requirements statements.

7. After the tool has been completed, the facilitator will make a number of recommendations based on the results of the audit and service user input.

8. These recommendations can be used to create an ‘Action Plan’ which the commissioners and clinicians will take forward in order to improve the services.

The tool is designed to be undertaken every year, so that developments can be monitored and the health and social care bodies can see the areas that they are improving in.

It can also be used to ‘benchmark’ or compare against other health and social care bodies that have used the tool if they agree to share this information. The PCT and Social Services of a specific area will be able to find other areas in the country with a similar-sized population, and can compare themselves to this area, learning the different ways that Requirements can be met and understanding how their neurology services fare in comparison to other parts of the country.