Walton Centre

The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust is a hospital in Fazakerley, Liverpool, England. It is the only specialist trust in the UK dedicated to providing brain and spine care and pain management. The majority of patients come from Merseyside, Cheshire, North Wales, Lancashire and the Isle of Man, but for some specialist treatments of complex disorders the Centre sees patients from all parts of the country, referred by their GPs or other hospitals.

The Walton Centre achieved NHS Trust status in 1992, then in 2009 gained NHS Foundation Trust status. The Trust’s catchment population is over 3.5 million and is drawn from Merseyside, Cheshire, parts of Lancashire and Greater Manchester, the Isle of Man and North Wales. The model of care operated by The Centre aims to ensure that the benefits of highly specialised care are taken as close as possible to the homes of the patients.

The wards in the hospital are all named after pioneering neurosurgeons in the 20th & 21st Century.

Neurology

The Walton Centre is renowned for providing exceptional care to people suffering with neurological problems and long-term conditions. The Trust’s consultant neurologists run 15 satellite general neurology clinics in hospitals around the North West and North Wales, delivering care near to patients’ homes, and ward referrals within those hospitals. At the Centre, there is an inpatient and on-call service for neurological patients from across the region, and both general and many sub-specialist outpatient clinics.

The sub-specialist clinics cover the full range:

• epilepsy
  
• Parkinson’s disease, dystonia and movement disorders, ataxias, neurogenetic disorders
  
• multiple sclerosis (MS), other demyelinating disorders of the nervous system including transverse myelitis and neuromyelitis optica
• dementia
  
• neuromuscular disease
  
• motor neurone disease
  
• TIA and cerebrovascular disease
  
• myasthenia gravis
  
• headache
  
• infectious disorders of the nervous system
  

The Centre has strong multidisciplinary working, with specialist nurses in epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, deep brain stimulation and myasthenia. They maintain regular contact with patients through clinics, group sessions, telephone and e-mail and, for some, also home visits.

Neurosurgery

The vast majority of clinics occur at The Walton Centre, but there is also a clinic at Chester and spinal clinics at Whiston and Wigan. A comprehensive range of neurosurgery takes place at the Centre, using the latest techniques and often pioneering new methods. A full core emergency service is provided, with other services provided through a sub-specialist model comprising:

• Neuro-oncology (primary & secondary tumours)
  
• Pituitary surgery
  
• Spinal
  
• Functional neurosurgery including surgery for:
  
  • epilepsy
    
  • deep brain stimulation for movement disorders including Parkinson’s disease, tremor, dystonia
    
• Neurosurgical treatment of pain, including:
  
  • trigeminal neuralgia
    
  • spinal cord stimulation
    
  • intrathecal drug delivery
    
  • deep brain stimulation
    
• Vascular neurosurgery
  
• Hydrocephalus
  
• Trauma – both cranial and spinal
  

Many of these are supported by specialist nurses.
The Trust has a 20-bedded dedicated critical care facility, five fully resourced theatres and a separate suite for interventional neuro-radiology techniques, with a 24 hour on-call emergency service. One recent development is the use of stereotactic radiosurgery to treat CNS tumours, both benign and malignant, and arteriovenous malformations with accurately focused beams of radiation, providing so-called “knifeless surgery”. The service has grown year on year and the spinal surgical service is now one of the biggest in the country.

Pain Services

The Walton Centre leads the way nationally with its innovative programme of pain relief for chronic sufferers, delivered by a multi disciplinary team and, unusually, the department of neurosurgery participates in the delivery of the pain services. Several procedures are not widely available outside Walton. They include spinal cord stimulation, deep brain stimulation and intrathecal drug delivery systems.

The Centre for Pain Relief is closely associated with The Pain Research Institute - the only research institute in the world entirely devoted to the scientific study of chronic pain in humans. The team includes pain clinicians, neurosurgeons, neurologists, psychologists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists. There are four consultants who hold outpatient clinics daily.

Criticism

The hospital has been criticized for not offering treatments available in the United States.

There have been allegations that a surgeon at the hospital removed brain tissue for research purposes without the patient's consent. The samples were used to test a new treatment for brain diseases on which the surgeon was joint owner of the patent.

In 2006, the hospital was identified as "the most dangerous hospital in Merseyside and Cheshire for health workers".

References

• Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery National Health Service Trust (Establishment) Order 1991 S.I. 1991/2411

External links

• The Walton Centre