Text-only version

Home | About us | For professionals | What's new
Epilepsy information | Support us | Contact | Useful addresses

• Out-patient clinics, attended by 3,000 patients per year
  
• In-patient assessment of up to 600 patients per year

Other care services provided include:

• Respite care facilities for up to 300 days per year
  
• Long-term residential care for over 260 people with epilepsy.

Clinical services

The clinical activities of the National Society for Epilepsy (NSE) are run in conjunction with the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN) in London, part of UCLH NHS Trust. This forms the largest epilepsy practice in the UK in terms of both patient numbers and the range of facilities.

The NSE, with NHNN, provides the complete spectrum of clinical care including:

• In-patient and out-patient care, with neurology, neurosurgery, neuropsychiatry, neuropsychology, neuroimaging, neuropharmacology, neurophysiology and psychotherapy
  Information on in-patient care
  
• Clinics for new patients with a potential diagnosis of epilepsy
  
• Epilepsy specialist nurses and counsellors
  
• Epilepsy surgery
  
• Video-EEG (Electroencephalography) telemetry
  
• State-of-the-art MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and PET (Positron Emission Tomography) brain scanners
  
• Pharmacological and biochemical evaluation
  
• Experimental and developmental anti-epileptic drug treatment
  
• Emergency and dedicated neurological and neurosurgical intensive care units

More information on our EEG and MRI facilities
General information about EEG
General information about MRI

The facilities at the NHNN and NSE are complementary. There is a free flow of patients between the two locations, according to need. Patients are referred from all over the UK and also from abroad. The service specialises in tertiary referrals and in the diagnosis and treatment of complex and severe cases of epilepsy. We offer outpatient clinics for NHS and private patients, and all the fees from the latter go to support the work of the NSE. Referrals are taken from GPs and consultants.

Epilepsy surgery

The epilepsy surgery programme at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children is one of the most active in the world, with 100 patients being treated annually.

Patients are evaluated and treated by a multi-disciplinary team and the programme includes neurological, neurophysiological, imaging, psychological, surgical, psychiatric and social pre-surgical evaluation and post-operative follow-up. A full range of surgical options is offered using highly advanced equipment.

Information on surgery

Epilepsy clinical trials unit

Clinical trials are carried out at both the National Society for Epilepsy and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN), in in-patient and out-patient settings.

The unit provides an ideal environment for clinical trials of new anti-epileptic drugs. The team is also regularly consulted by pharmaceutical companies and regulatory authorities on the design, logistics and scientific aspects of the evaluations of new anti-epileptic drugs.

The unit is overseen by the Ethics Committee at NHNN and the Multicentre Research Ethics Committee. Approval of these committees is required before any clinical trial can begin.

February 2007

Back to top

Clinical services

Epilepsy surgery

Epilepsy clinical trials unit