The Working Party also expressed concern at the shortage of rehabilitation places for early transfer of head injured patients. Whilst this is encouraging it has to be recognised that there are several unfilled posts for consultants in rehabilitation and it is proving difficult to encourage good doctors to enter specialist training in rehabilitation. The report also stresses the importance of follow up of brain injured people. They state that these problems can probably be more successfully managed if identified and treated early. However, they go on to point out that there is little evidence that either the acute hospital services or the community services are aware of the size of this problem or the importance of early diagnosis.
Illness can threaten their ability to continue to live independently.
By making continuing health care a priority, the NHS is beginning the long process of development - confirming the importance of continuing health care and being both clearer and more open about which services the NHS can provide and in what circumstances. In 1992 pilot projects were established at twelve hospitals to improve rehabilitation services for brain injured people. The work on continuing care confirmed the importance of adequate and timely rehabilitation. It can be seen from these official statements that the general policy framework for the Health Service clearly involves provision of services for people with chronic and complex disabilities. The poor working relationship between many health and social service departments is one of the more frequent complaints from patient representative groups and at multidisciplinary professional conferences.