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More medical professionals 'needed to help Parkinson's sufferers'

Thursday 2nd April 2009

More medical professionals, including speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists, are required to help people who suffer from Parkinson's disease in Scotland.

This was the claim made by Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray, who also called for more Parkinson's disease nurse specialists (PDNSs)

According to Parkinson Disease Society figures cited by the politician, around 10,000 patients have the condition north of the border and the country needs around one PDNS for every 300 sufferers.

He said: "Something must be done to address a problem where one in three Parkinson's sufferers has never spoken to a PDNS. More than one in three has never received treatment from a physiotherapist."

In addition, more than half have never received treatment from a speech and language therapist, while a similar proportion have not been seen by an occupational therapist, he claimed.

Parkinson's disease is a neurological condition which affects around 120,000 people in the UK, according to NHS figures.

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