Excellence Network national priority programmes
The Excellence Network national priority programmes were launched in response to service improvement priorities identified by the UK Parkinson’s Audit.
Led by national experts, these ambitious multi year programmes draw together teams of clinicians and members of the Parkinson’s community from across the UK. They're gathering data, reviewing insights and championing and supporting step change improvements to health and care services for people with Parkinson’s.
Right now, we're working together to transform Parkinson’s services through better access to Parkinson’s nurses, access to best practice multidisciplinary care, improved management of bone health and medication optimisation and management.
Explore the national priority programmes
Discover the vision of each of the national priority programmes, including reports and tools they’ve produced. More will be added as the programmes progress, so check back for updates.
Chair: Dr Donald Grosset, Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Neuroscience, and Excellence Network Lead for Service Improvement
Be part of improving bone health
During 2023 we'd like to invite new and returning healthcare professionals and services, who provide care for people with Parkinson's, to take part in a further phase of the project.
Chair: Patsy Cotton, former Parkinson’s Specialist Nurse and Excellence Network Clinical Lead for Innovation
In the 2022 UK Parkinson's Audit of the 21.2% of respondents who went to hospital, only 42% always got their medication on time. We want all people with Parkinson’s to receive their medications correctly and on time, every time, when they're in hospital.
We're building on work already done to change hospital practice to bring about a better experience for people with Parkinson's. Since the campaign launched on World Parkinson's Day in 2022, over 100 chief executives of acute healthcare trusts, regional ambulances services, chief nursing officers and other NHS executives across all 4 nations have pledged their support. Now we are asking those chief executives to benchmark against ten recommendations for their hospitals.
We're sharing best practice, rolling out tools and resources and developing a self administration policy. We’re also developing a toolkit to help people with Parkinson’s advocate for themselves in hospital.
Programme objectives
- Hospital health care staff have an understanding of Parkinson’s and time critical medications, they seek to ensure that people with Parkinson’s consistently receive their medications on time while in hospital.
- Tools, guides and resources are available to enable optimisation of hospital systems and improved administration of time critical medications for people with Parkinson’s.
- The importance of time critical Parkinson's medications is recognised and supported by the UK Government and devolved nations, NHS leaders and the relevant national bodies.
- People with Parkinson’s, their families and networks are empowered and supported to advocate for Parkinson’s medications on time.
Time critical medication and Get It On Time campaign resources
Find out more about what has already been achieved by the Time critical medication national priority programme and what resources are available through the Get It On Time campaign. Visit the Time critical medication resource page.
Upcoming event
Join us on 26 February 2025 for a webinar focusing on the tools and knowledge you need to improve the delivery of time critical Parkinson’s medication in your organisation.
Chair: Rowan Wathes, Associate Director of the Parkinson’s Excellence Network
We have created a clear vision for best practice multidisciplinary care and a new, online induction for therapists. We've 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.
Programme objectives
- Develop a clear vision for person centred multidisciplinary care and achieve consensus around best practice.
- Increase the number of services implementing best practice, including through our partnership with the Flow Coaching Academy.
- Develop and roll out new training opportunities for therapists, including through our new therapist induction.
- Improve understanding of best practice multidisciplinary care among people with Parkinson’s, relatives and carers.
Vision statement
Click here to read the multidisciplinary care vision statement (PDF 843KB).
Chair: Professor Annette Hand, Parkinson’s specialist nurse
This programme aims to make access to a Parkinson’s specialist nurse a priority. To date, Parkinson’s UK has pump primed more than 320 nurse posts across the UK. Now with funding administered through the Excellence Network, this will continue 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.
Do you want to learn more about the national priority programmes, or find out how your service could get involved? Email [email protected] to find out more.
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