Background

Epilepsy is a very worrying condition for patients and the public, but with good care, it can be better controlled and risks minimised. Many seizures presentations to Emergency Departments (EDs) could be prevented. NASH (the National Audit of Seizure management in Hospitals) examines the facilities and care available to such patients in order that it will identify how best to change services to reduce the numbers presenting at hospital.

Two rounds of NASH have previously taken place. The first round took place in 2011 with 127 hospitals entering 3755 cases onto the database. NASH2 took place in 2013, with 4,544 cases entered from 154 hospitals. St Elsewhere reports from real (but anonymised) hospital are available to download for both NASH1 and NASH2 from the "Newsletter and reports" section of our website. The NASH audits have focused upon cases presenting to EDs in the UK with a seizure.

Despite being the most common serious neurological condition (with around 600,000 people in the UK having the diagnosis), epilepsy is not high on the commissioning agenda – and indeed is often ignored behind the higher profiles of heart disease, COPD, diabetes and stroke. By collecting representative data from across the UK, NASH has raised the profile of epilepsy by providing comparative data that will encourage clinicians within Trusts and commissioners within PCTs (or their successors) to include it actively when planning services.

NASH is based on the successful methods used for many of the other national audits, and has been developed with input from emergency physicians, epilepsy specialists and patient groups.

 

NASH 3

In 2018 we were awarded funding by UCB pharma to run a 3rd round of data collection for NASH (NASH3). Participating sites collected data on cases attending Emergency departments from 1st June 2018 to 30th June 2019. The audit was added to the 2019/20 quality accounts list held by HQIP.

The last site completed their data entry in January 2020. The production of the individual site audit reports and the St Elsewhere report were delayed due to Covid-19. However, they are now available. Individual audit reports have been sent to the relevant hospitals. The St Elsewhere report for NASH 3 can be found in the Newsletter section of this website.

Full details of the dissemination plan for the audit results will be published shortly.

 

If you wish to get in touch with the NASH team, click the 'Contact us' link at the left hand side of the page to email the study office.