PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Meneka Kanagaratnam
AU  - Ajay Boodhoo
AU  - Bridget MacDonald
AU  - Arani Nitkunan
TI  - 12.03 Acute neurology: a two week snapshot in a district general hospital
AID  - 10.1136/jnnp-2019-ABN-2.9
DP  - 2019 Dec 01
TA  - Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry
PG  - A3--A3
VI  - 90
IP  - 12
4099  - http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/90/12/A3.2.short
4100  - http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/90/12/A3.2.full
SO  - J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry2019 Dec 01; 90
AB  - Neurological illnesses are a common cause of hospital admissions, yet most patients are not primarily managed by neurologists. Acute neurology services also vary across the UK. During a 2 week period in a district general hospital with a 5 day inreaching neurological service (a consultant delivered service with a neurology nurse coordinator but no inpatient beds), the number of patients admitted with a neurological problem, as well as the proportion of those patients who were seen by the hyperacute neurology team was assessed by reviewing the diagnostic codes. It was established there was a total of 2242 admissions during the study period, and of those, 491 (22%) had neurological codes. Careful analysis of the 491 hospital electronic records revealed that 229 (10%) were truly neurologically relevant. Of those, 14% patients had a neurological opinion – despite a relatively comprehensive service (compared to many other district general hospitals), only a small proportion of acute neurology is being seen by neurologists.