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The abstracts are published as supplied by the Association of British Neurologists; they have been formatted for consistency.Every effort has been made to reproduce the abstracts faithfully; however, no responsibility is assumed by the publishers or editor for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of product liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instruments, or ideas contained in the material herein. We recommend independent verification of diagnoses and drug dosages.
001 EMAIL TRIAGE FOR NEW NEUROLOGICAL OUTPATIENT REFERRALS: WHAT THE CUSTOMERS THINK
L. A. Loizou, V. Patterson, C. Donaghy, K. Zoniou.Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, Ireland; Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield, UK
The waiting time to see a neurologist in the UK is still unduly long and this delay is problematic for patients, general practitioners (GPs), neurologists, health authorities, and politicians alike. Increasing neurologist numbers is one possible solution but email triage of new referrals is another. This has been shown to prevent 50% of referrals entering the hospital clinic system and is safe, efficient, and sustainable. One of the objections to it is that patients and their GPs will be unhappy with a system in which the patients are not seen. To test this we asked patients waiting to see a neurologist and also GPs which system they would prefer in both Wakefield and Northern Ireland. We made explicit the trade-off between a rapid response and the possibility of not being seen (the email system), and a less rapid response with the guarantee of being seen (the conventional system). 86% of patients and 61% of GPs preferred the email system. Patient preference was similar in Wakefield and Northern Ireland but more GPs in Northern Ireland preferred the email system (80% vs 49%). These results should encourage neurologists who wish to try out an email triage system for new patient referrals.
002 THE ABILITY OF A NURSE SPECIALIST TO DIAGNOSE SIMPLE HEADACHE DISORDERS COMPARED WITH CONSULTANT NEUROLOGISTS
D. …