The Epilepsy Society has become an affiliate member of the voluntary sector-led neurology commissioning support organisation set up to influence NHS commissioning, after it identified large sums of money being wasted on unnecessary epilepsy treatment.

Neurological Commissioning Support (NCS) Ltd is a joint initiative from the MND Association, MS Society and Parkinson’s UK, set up three years ago to help health and social care commissioners understand the needs of people with a neurological condition.

Now, as GPs are about to be handed responsibility for the commissioning of health services in England, Epilepsy Society has become an affiliate member of NCS, enabling it to formally offer its expertise in epilepsy treatment and care to GP consortia procuring healthcare services.

NCS claims that during the last three years, in its work with PCTs and local authorities, it has identified a large amount of unnecessary neurology spend for unscheduled care, and a considerable proportion of this is linked to epilepsy.

“Unscheduled care” for people with epilepsy usually means a trip to A&E and an inpatient stay after a sudden and severe seizure, according to the Epilepsy Society.  However, the incidence of such seizures can be dramatically reduced if people receive treatment in line with NICE guidelines – yet these guidelines are rarely followed.

Graham Faulkner (pictured), chief executive of the Epilepsy Society, said: “By contributing our epilepsy expertise to these guidelines for commissioners, we hope to help GPs make a real difference to their patients with epilepsy and to the local NHS.”

Sue Thomas, chief executive of NCS, said the addition of epilepsy to the portfolio of conditions NCS can support with commissioning means “a far greater slice of the consortia budget can be spent more wisely and services planned in a new way which centres on patients themselves”.

NCS has recently won an Innovation Excellence and Service Development Grant from the Department of Health to enable it to work with commissioners in emerging GP consortia and help them understand how to better commission services by listening to those people who are experts in their own condition.