Epilepsy is a very worrying condition for patients and the public, and with good care it can be controlled. Many seizures presenting to Emergency Departments could be prevented. NASH (the National Audit of Seizure management in Hospitals) will examine 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.

Despite being most common serious neurological condition (with over 450,000 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.

NASH has collected representative data from across the UK, and in the process hopes to raise 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.

The project is based on the successful methods used for many of the other national projects, and has been developed with input from emergency physicians, epilepsy specialists and patient groups. NASH focuses upon cases presenting to emergency departments in the UK with a seizure. A simple-to-complete web-based data collection tool enquired about immediate, previous and onward care pathways. Data collection began on March 14th and finished on July 14th, examining 30 consecutive cases presenting after October 1st 2010. We deliberately kept data collection to a minimum, but nevertheless envisage that the data should be sufficient for Trusts to identify changes that will improve patient outcomes and potentially reduce the hospital burden – in line with governmental objectives.

A total of 3,755 cases were entered on to the database from 127 sites. Analysis of the clinical data has been completed at a site level and each participating hospital has received a copy of their report. A St Elsewhere's report from a real (but anonymised) hospital is available to download from the "Newsletter and reports" section of our website. Site-level organisational reports are due to be produced and distributed by the end of April 2012. Further reports at a regional level will be produced in due course.