An audit of admissions of patients with epilepsy to a district general hospital

The results of an audit of the admission of epilepsy sufferers in a UK District General Hospital are presented. The results strongly suggest that most admissions were due to potentially mutable problems including poor compliance with medication rather than to difficult epilepsy per se. It is suggested that consistent support of these patients, for example by an epilepsy nurse specialist, would have perhaps prevented many of these admissions. Care of these patients in hospital failed to achieve standards set by various guidelines for epilepsy management.