Valerie Hosts Epilsepy Passport Launch at the House of Commons

On Friday 18 September 2015 I hosted the launch of the Epilepsy Passport at the House of Commons as Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Epilepsy on behalf of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH). It is an important development in the treatment of Epilepsy for children. The passport is an easy-to-carry paper record of relevant and up-to-date clinical information about a child or young person’s epilepsy. It includes an emergency care plan, medication history and key professional contacts which can be used by medical staff when families access emergency healthcare and to provide information to schools, residential or respite care services.  It was developed by the RCPCH under the leadership of Dr Richard Appleton and Dr Amit Bali, following the recommendations of the Child Health Review into Epilepsy.

This comes at an important time as in May this year the World Health Organisation (WHO) passed a resolution urging Member States to strengthen their ongoing efforts in providing care for people with epilepsy. This included stressing the need to reinforce health information systems to improve access to care. The innovation of the Epilepsy Passport will go some way to meeting this resolution.

I was pleased to welcome Dr Appleton, a consultant paediatric neurologist at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital who introduced the Passport and Dr Bali, Darzi Fellow in paediatrics at the UCL-Institute of Child Health.  Dr Bali, explained what the Epilepsy Passport is and how it will help children with Epilepsy.  Janet Currier a parent and Owen Thurston a 16 year old also spoke about their involvement with developing the Epilepsy Passport as panel experts.

I hope that the Epilepsy Passport will become a national resource in epilepsy care to ensure children with epilepsy receive the best possible integrated healthcare. The Epilepsy Passport is a world first and is an excellent innovation in epilepsy healthcare. I am writing to all MPs to ask them to bring it to the attention of and to encourage their local GPs to find out more about the Epilepsy Passport for their patients.

Link: Epilepsy Passport