Wales holds it's first country-wide Excellence Network meeting

A warm welcome from Parkinson's UK Cymru

Delegates from all disciplines and representing all health boards were welcomed by Ana Palazon, Director of Parkinson’s UK Cymru, who thanked everyone for attending and expressed her excitement for the day ahead. 

Next, Dr Sion Jones, Consultant Geriatrician at Ysbyty Gwynedd Hospital Bangor and lead for the Wales North Local Parkinson's Excellence Network opened the day with a brilliant presentation on cannabis and Parkinson’s. Dr Jones focused attention on the evidence base for the effectiveness of cannabis in Parkinson’s. Suffice to say the jury’s still out. 

Ffion Mair Jones then led a lively debate on the role of the Parkinson’s Practitioner; a role that’s making great strides in Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, and shared her expertise on the importance of exercise in Parkinson’s.

Examining the state of DBS and a new database in South Wales

Keeping the pace, the day continued with Dr Wilson Fung’s insightful research into Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in Parkinson’s and the state of DBS in South Wales. Dr Fung highlighted the likely under-referring of people with Parkinson’s who are suitable for DBS. Continuing the South Wales focus, Parkinson’s Nurse Specialists, Sandra Mahon and Louise Ebeneezer, shared their experiences of using the South Wales Parkinson’s database. This prompted many questions from interested colleagues in the room.

The morning session closed with a powerful look at some challenging patient cases with Dr Glesni Davies, again prompting much discussion.

A quality improvement session opened the afternoon programme. This included presentations from Cath Grose (advance care planning) and Dr Biju Mohamed, Consultant Geriatrician and lead for the Wales South Local Parkinson's Excellence Network, along with Dr Jyothi Adenwalla (Sialorrhoea and botox – the rationale and service implications.).

A group discussion on Get It On Time 

The final session of the day, chaired by Jane Price, Parkinson’s Nurse Specialist, focused on the Parkinson’s UK Get It On Time campaign. Rachel Williams, Policy, Campaigns and Communications Manager at Parkinson’s UK Cymru, outlined the issues around getting medicine on time in hospital with input from Elaine Evans and Steff Streat who both shared their personal experiences. This stimulated much discussion around practical measures for improving medicines on time in hospital. Key ideas were identified by delegates, including self administration of medication (where practical) and improved IT infrastructures.

Continuing discussions and learning

If you'd like to see slides from the January meeting, keep in touch, and hear about future events, join the Wales Local Excellence Network online collaboration space (Basecamp) by email request to [email protected].