How a fellowship in Parkinson’s Disease is changing services across the South West

Dr Catherine Penman is a Care of the Elderly Registrar with a special interest in movement disorders. She has worked around the South West of England since she graduated from Bristol University in 2016.

She is currently undertaking the Advanced Clinical Training Fellowship in Parkinson’s Disease funded by Parkinson’s UK via the Parkinson's Excellence Network in partnership with the BGS. Applications for the Advanced Clinical Training Fellowship in Parkinson’s 2025 are now open until Monday 6 January 2025. To find out more or apply, visit: www.bgs.org.uk/PD2025

As time ran away from me and with my end goal to become a Consultant in Geriatric Medicine edging closer, the opportunity to apply for the Advanced Clinical Training Fellowship in Parkinson’s disease could not have come at a better time. I developed an interest in Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders during my training, and so it was a happy coincidence that this fellowship opportunity landed at the optimum time.

Movement disorders appeal to me for a variety of reasons; the challenging complexity and the longevity of the clinician-patient relationship from diagnosis through to palliative end-stage Parkinson’s disease. I have always valued the continuity of care for patients, and specialising in movement disorders allows me to see patients regularly throughout all stages of their condition.

Listening to the Movers and Shakers podcast inspired me to design my fellowship to address local health inequalities in care for people living with Parkinson’s.

I am working across a split-site trust, which covers a large population of older people who were previously underserved by movement disorder services. There is no current community Parkinson’s practitioner for two large postcode areas in post, and with a two-year hiatus in consultant cover at one site, this presented a real opportunity to develop and improve services.

This fellowship has given me the time and flexibility to go out and meet people living with Parkinson’s and those caring for them and to work out what structure would best serve the local community. I am now in the process of using this feedback to collaborate with other local trusts and primary care teams to improve the care in our region.

I am focussing on those most at risk of losing access to specialist secondary care, such as people living in care homes. The fellowship has allowed me to cross the interface between primary and secondary care, with the unique opportunity to collaborate with an innovative care home initiative focused on primary care. I hope by the end of this fellowship to have made progress in designing a more robust and reactive service for all our patients.

Through the fellowship, I have many training opportunities both at my own trust but also at the local tertiary centre that works with neurologists running advanced therapies and atypical movement disorder clinics. The flexibility to attend these clinics allows me to upskill in areas I may not have been able to in my training programme. I have direct mentorship from an experienced movement disorders consultant and can gain expertise from a wide range of MDT members with specialist focus on movement disorders. I am able to provide education to medical students, resident doctors and through primary care links to GPs and Advanced Practitioners working in the community.

I am extremely grateful to the BGS and Parkinson’s UK for providing me with this invaluable opportunity and hope that in nine months’ time I will be able to present what we have achieved in our area to improve services for our patients. I would highly recommend this fellowship to any trainee with an interest in movement disorders, as the flexibility to design the job role around your own area of interest is quite unusual.