Multiple Sclerosis Report Highlights High Cost of Care in UK

Margarida Azevedo, MSc avatar

by Margarida Azevedo, MSc |

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MS hospital care

A new report, written jointly by the NHiS Commissioning Excellence and the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Trust, highlights the healthcare costs of emergency hospitalization of MS patients in the United Kingdom and points to more cost-effective and better ways toĀ care for this patient population. The executive summary and full report are available at the NHiS website.

MS is a debilitating condition that affects the central nervous system, where the coating around the neurons (myelin) is damaged, resulting in a range of both intellectualĀ and physical symptoms affecting vision, speech patterns, balance, movement, and memory. While the causes of the disease are unknown, researchers believe a combination of genetic and environmental factors are at play.

According to the Multiple Sclerosis Society, MS, in its recognized relapsing-remitting, secondary progressive, and primary progressive types, affects more than 100,000 people in the U.K. Ā Being a long-term disease, MS often requiresĀ hospital admissionsĀ forĀ reasons that commonly include respiratory and urinary tract infections, pneumonia, and MS itself. Healthcare for MS patients, especially in emergency unplanned visits, came at aĀ cost ofĀ Ā£43 million to the National Health Service (NHS) in 2013-14.

The report gathered data both nationally and locally from the English Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) database toĀ provide healthcare policy-makers with up-to-dateĀ information inĀ determiningĀ appropriate changes in MSĀ treatment and services. The authors suggest that focusing on identifying at-risk patients, re-organizing medical staff, ensuring MS nurses have manageable caseloads, addressing issues before a crisis, and offering more proactive and preventive care are of importance in ensuringĀ qualityĀ care and reducing MS-related costs.

Amy Bowen, Director of Service Development at the Multiple Sclerosis Trust, said in a press release:Ā ā€œOur report shows that if more emphasis was placed on anticipatory care for MS patients, many of these hospital admissions could be prevented. This would reduce NHS costs and vastly improve quality of life for people with MS.Ā MS nurse specialists are ideally placed to identify at-risk patients and to address issues before the onset of a crisis, with help from GPs [general practitioners], neurologists, allied health professionals and community services. We need to ensure that the NHS is channeling this expertise into providing more proactive care for MS patients.ā€