Introducing the Excellence Network national priority programmes

Better bone health

Improving bone health and reducing fracture risk.

Dr Donald Grosset, the Excellence Network’s outgoing Clinical Director and our new Lead for Service Improvement, chairs the advisory group for this programme. People with Parkinson’s are more than twice as likely to have osteoporosis and fractures than those without the condition. Yet many are not routinely assessed for fracture risk. We've been running a national multi centre service improvement project with 44 services across the UK. The treatments introduced in this project alone would be expected to prevent around 3 vertebral and 2 non vertebral fractures. We're now working to improve awareness of bone health among people with Parkinson’s and increase confidence in assessment and management among clinicians.

Time critical Parkinson’s medications (Get It On Time)

Ensuring people with Parkinson’s receive their time critical medications on time in hospital. 

This programme is chaired by Patsy Cotton, Parkinson’s specialist nurse and the Excellence Network Clinical Lead for Innovation. We are building on work already done to change hospital practice to bring about a better experience for people with Parkinson's. So far, 52 NHS chief executive officers (CEOs) have pledged support. We're sharing best practice, rolling out bitesize engagement and training videos and developing a toolkit to help people with Parkinson’s advocate for themselves in hospital. We're also developing a self administration policy. 

Multidisciplinary care

Improving clinical outcomes and independence through better access to person centred multidisciplinary care.

Rowan Wathes, our Associate Director, chairs this programme. So far, we have created a clear vision for best practice multidisciplinary care and a new, online induction for therapists. We have also launched a new scheme for pump priming allied health professional (AHP) posts. In September, we're kicking off work with 6 ‘accelerator sites’ who will be transforming their approach to multidisciplinary working (and collecting robust evidence on the benefits for people with Parkinson’s and the local health economy). Read more about our pump priming.

Parkinson’s nurse workforce fit for now and the future

Making access to a Parkinson’s specialist nurse a priority.

This programme is chaired by Professor Annette Hand, Parkinson’s specialist nurse and the Excellence Network Clinical lead for Nursing. To date, Parkinson’s UK has pump primed more than 320 nurse posts across the UK. Now with funding administered through the Excellence Network, we will continue doing this until the average caseload for each nurse is no more than 300. We're also working to boost recruitment and retention rates and champion improvements to succession planning.

You can read more about each of the 4 programmes on our dedicated Excellence Network national programmes webpage. This page will be updated with more content as the programmes progress, so make sure you keep checking back for updates.

For more information about any of these programmes or to get involved, please email [email protected]. We would be delighted to hear from you!