75% attendance was achieved {Table 6) and
in those patients who required further foUow-ups at the nurse-led
clinic, a 100% attendance record w^as acliieved. In relation to poor
attendance figures some comments made by patients attending
the clinic provided a better insight into this issue. A large
percentage of patients commented that they never saw the same
doctor twice, and they also felt that there was inconsistency in
some of the advice given, and that the more practical problemsolving
advice was severely lacking. When patients usually attend
clinic they may be seen by a senior house ofBcer, who has only
spent a small time within this specialist field (3 months) or a
specialist registrar on rotation within the field of neurosciences.
Although the outpatient facihty provides sound expert
medical advice, the audit of referrals and admissions revealed
that these mainly required nursing management of skin,
bladder and bowel problems. It could therefore be argued that
if this input was provided by a specialist nurse in clinic, then
numbers of readmissions may have been considerably reduced.