Can MS Nurses Help Reduce Non-Elective Admission?

Aim

To examine 12 months of Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data collection to identify whether MS nurses can help reduce the number of elective admissions among their caseload.

Headlines

• Emergency hospital admissions for people with MS are rising nationally – HES data shows there were around 4,000 more non-elective admissions in 2018/19 then there were in 2016/17
• In 2018/19, 18,305 people with MS were admitted 30,310 times, costing the NHS £86million
• Preventative care could reduce the number of emergency admissions for people with MS, improving patient care and reducing costs

Key findings

Analysis of the HES data relating to admissions to Leeds Hospital, and Calderdale and Huddersfield Hospitals in 2018/19 found:

• There were 320 non-elective admissions for people with MS to Leeds, costing £1.24million
• There were 230 non-elective admissions for people with MS to Calderdale and Huddersfield, costing £554,000
• The majority of these admissions related to urinary tract infections (UTIs) and sepsis

Recommendations

The team made a number of recommendations, based on these results. They included:

• Introduce a post-discharge specialist nurse appointment
• Establish a bladder clinic to provide timely management
• Provide patients with a personal care pack including all relevant information and clinic contact details
• Include information on bladder dysfunction education in newly diagnosed patient education
• Create an MS clinic coordinator post to facilitate open access to MS services