UKABIF joins others to demand neurological services restart

The United Kingdom Acquired Brain Injury Forum are one of twenty organisations in the neurological sector who have written to the Chief Executive of the NHS England and NHS Improvement. The letter, collated by the Neurological Alliance, requests that services for people with neurological conditions resume as quickly as possible, following months of delay during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the beginning of lockdown hospitals emptied their neurological and rehabilitation wards discharging people home or to nursing homes; out patient appointments were also cancelled.

Many people with life-changing brain injuries had their rehabilitation programmes cut back or cancelled, with no indication as to when they will resume. Short-term 3 week rehabilitation contracts with lower service specifications were introduced to cope with the COVID-19 crisis. 

The letter to Simon Stevens requests that this new specification is not rolled over and does not become permanent. It also demands that patients discharged prematurely due to COVID-19 are reviewed.

A full copy of the report is available on the Neurological Alliance website. You can also review details of the survey, which supports the report via the links below.

Link to the report

https://www.neural.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20200703-Final-Restarting-Services-for-People-with-Neurological-conditions-v3.pdf

Link to survey

https://www.neural.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Technical-briefing_COVID19-impact-survey.pdf