Parkinson's and Other Movement Disorders HIT review of 2013-14

Dr Alan Whone reflects on the achievements of the Parkinson’s and Other Movement Disorders Health Integration Team (HIT) during 2013-14.

In the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG)
Partnership for Parkinson’s and Other Movement Disorders (Move–hIT), our first
goal was to audit the services currently available for people with Parkinson’s
in the region, the actual clinical and social care needs and patient
experience.

Once funding was secured, Neurological Commissioning
Support, a
voluntary sector organisation that aims to improve neurology commissioning, started
the audit in early 2014. This has included structured interviews with
professionals and patient focus groups, and results will be reported in May. This
report will form the basis of a BNSSG-specific integrated care pathway for
Parkinson’s, and we will apply to Parkinson’s UK in August for a service
development award.

The Parkinson’s Centre is due to open in January 2015 on the
Southmead site, and our own charity, ‘Move for Parkinson’s’, has continued to
community fundraise for this. We have supported educational events through the
Parkinson’s Academy, and have been key contributors at a regional meeting to discuss
improvements to Parkinson’s in-patient care and setting Commissioning for
Quality and Innovation targets.

Working to develop our research strategy, MOVE-hIT held a
meeting last Autumn to bring together preclinical and clinical movement
disorders researchers, as well as a separate meeting to inform people with
Parkinson’s across the South West about our research. We have maintained close
links with our PPI group and Parkinson’s UK, whose national ‘Excellence
Programme’ has clear parallels with MOVE-hIT’s work plan over the next few
years. We have secured much needed funding from industry for an administrator,
who will work part-time on our HIT developments, focusing on networking and
communications across the team and more widely. We anticipate that the next
year will see promising developments.