AQW 25508/22-27

Mr Nick Mathison
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 02/04/2025
Answered On Date: 17/04/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health, pursuant to AQW 24784/22-27, whether a code will be created to identify facial palsy patients to support the development of a facial palsy pathway.

Answer:

Facial palsy is almost always a presentation of an underlying condition with causes ranging from vascular, viral , trauma or as yet undiagnosed origin. The pathway for each of these conditions will vary consistent with the cause and severity. In this regard a code for facial palsy as the primary definition on a patient may not prove helpful in navigating the patient to the next appropriate service.

A new facial palsy referral/assessment pathway has been developed for adults and children. This has been a complex process with multiple services involved in the pathway development, and multiple access points into the service across all Trusts in Northern Ireland. These standardised pathways will ensure appropriate treatment of patients in local services as far as possible and will also outline the appropriate referral pathway for those requiring more enhanced specialist intervention.

Communication will be issued to each Trust in the coming weeks to inform them of the agreed pathway and an information webinar will be delivered to GPs and Emergency Departments to aide with timely and appropriate referral.