Sunday 27 September 2026
Internal Reference Number: FOI_9521
Date Request Received: 06/07/2026 00:00:00
Date Request Replied To: 03/08/2026 00:00:00
This response was sent via: By Email
Request Summary: UK Epilepsy Specialist Nurse (ESN) workforce
Request Category: Charities
| Question Number 1: I am writing to request some information under the Freedom of Information act. I am requesting this information as we would like to understand the UK Epilepsy Specialist Nurse (ESN) workforce in order to better support the NHS to provide care to people with epilepsy. These questions are applicable to any Trust that provides neurology or learning disability care. Please answer all questions that are relevant to your trust, and mark those that are not relevant clearly as such with a reason (e.g. ‘Not applicable as we do not provide learning disability care’). For the purposes of this request, an Epilepsy Specialist Nurse is any registered nurse whose substantive role includes any one of: specialist epilepsy assessment, management, review, education, care coordination, prescribing, or advice for people with epilepsy. Please could you provide the attached information: Please see Q1 - 4 attached | |
| Answer To Question 1: Please see attached. Q1 = 373 unique patients seen in Epilepsy outpatient clinics in the last 12 months. Medicine do not have any epilepsy specialist nurses. The Trust do not have an adult epilepsy nurse specialist as defined in the request working in the Trust. If a need around epilepsy was identified at SDH it would be referred to Neurology. Expectation is that ward based nurses would have knowledge to risk assess for and manage seizures. Further care and review would be provided by Southampton Hospital. In the community learning disability nurses with specific knowledge base in epilepsy are employed by HCRG. Their role includes completing epilepsy management plans, emergency plans and to review these in clinic organised annually To accompany this answer to question 1 please also see the documents listed below:  FOI 9521 Q1-4 for Paeds.pdf | |
| Please see Attachments: | |
| To return to the list of all the FOI requests please click here | |
Our staff at Salisbury District Hospital have long been well regarded for the quality of care and treatment they provide for our patients and for their innovation, commitment and professionalism. This has been recognised in a wide range of achievements and it is reflected in our award of NHS Foundation Trust status. This is afforded to hospitals that provide the highest standards of care.
