Professor Orla Hardiman:

It is also important to note that as we develop new treatments - and multiple sclerosis is a very good example of that because there are many treatments for the disease now and it is very much more treatable compared with when I started out in my practice - continued surveillance and engagement with services are required. Those numbers change all the time. The ratio of nurses to patients will change because the need will change as well. These are evolving services and evolving treatments. It is also true with Parkinson's disease. We have some new and innovative treatments for Parkinson's disease, for example, deep brain stimulation. We also have a lot of evidence that engagement with multidisciplinary rehabilitation services can improve outcome and quality of life for people with Parkinson's disease and many of those services would be integrated by nursing specialist services. That is a real limitation at present in this country.