Health: Multiple Sclerosis

Lord Laming Excerpts

Tuesday 7th June 2011 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

The noble Baroness makes a very important point, and she is right. I will have to check whether the guide refers to that issue. I would be surprised if it did not. However, the central point that she makes is quite correct. The key to this, as so often, is good communication between those providing care at every stage of the care pathway. Sometimes, unfortunately, that breaks down.

[Lord Laming]

Can the Minister tell the House what means the Department of Health has for monitoring the reductions in these multidisciplinary teams to which he has referred? There is evidence, at a local level, of quite serious reductions at present.

[Earl Howe]

The problem is that, historically, there has been no requirement to publish information on the number of multiple sclerosis nurses. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care extracts data from the electronic staff record and quality-assures the data prior to publication in the non-medical workforce census. The qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff group is broken down only by area of work, so it is quite difficult to keep a handle on this.