The Full Cost of Epilepsy Misdiagnosis in the UK

Main Category: Epilepsy
Article Date: 17 Jun 2005 - 10:00 PDT

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In welcoming the announcement that the courts have approved a scheme to compensate the children misdiagnosed with epilepsy by Dr Holton in Leicester Epilepsy Action is questioning the full cost to the UK of epilepsy misdiagnosis.

Phil Lee, Epilepsy Action's chief executive, comments:

"We are pleased that a scheme of this nature has been approved, with each case being considered individually and parents having the chance to question the panel about their child's case. We hope that this will speed up the compensation process and ease the stress on the all of the families involved.

We must still remember that problems of this nature are symptomatic of a much wider problem. There are only 70 paediatric neurologists in the UK but over 42,000 children under 16 with epilepsy. Whilst there are some excellent epilepsy services, there are still too many children and adults receiving inadequate care."

Approximately 456,000 people in the UK have a diagnosis of epilepsy. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has acknowledged that epilepsy misdiagnosis rates in the United Kingdom are between 20 - 31 per cent (i). This equates to between 91,000 and 141,000 people with a diagnosis of epilepsy and receiving AEDs who do not have the condition. As has been shown by the Holton case, the impact of misdiagnosis on an individual and their family can be devastating. It is also expensive. Based on figures published by NICE, the total UK cost of misdiagnosis is estimated at a staggering �160,125,000 (i). What if even a small proportion of these people are also eligible for compensation?

Inadequate epilepsy care will continue unless there is more funding, more epilepsy specialists and national targets to improve epilepsy services in the UK. Epilepsy Action asks what action the government will now take to reduce misdiagnosis rates, support those who are misdiagnosed and protect people from similar trauma in the future?

(i) The Clinical Guidelines and Evidence Review for the Epilepsies: the evidence base for The epilepsies: diagnosis and management of the epilepsies in adults and children. National Institute for Clinical Excellence guideline (2004).

This press release is also available in Adobe Acrobat PDF and Microsoft Word formats at epilepsy.org.uk/press/releases.html

http://www.epilepsy.org.uk

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