Our findings from the 2025 UK Parkinson's Audit

Today we’re publishing the results of our latest Audit of NHS services for people with Parkinson’s. 

We’ve looked at data from each NHS trust or health board in the UK to check how well they’re doing against national standards. We also asked their patients about their experience, so we know whether people with Parkinson’s are getting what they need from the NHS. 

Here are some important findings from the Audit:

• Patient satisfaction remains high. Overall, people with Parkinson’s are satisfied with the quality of their service: 86% of people responding to the survey rated their NHS Parkinson’s service as good or excellent.

• Access to the right specialists is improving, but gaps remain. Access to speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physios is improving, with 93% of services able to offer access. However, getting referred to see a mental health specialist is more difficult. 30% of people who felt they needed mental health services were unable to access them. A further 40% could not access mental health specialists between appointments. This level of access is significantly lower than for other services.

• Information about physical activity is improving, but support at diagnosis is still lacking. We know giving people with Parkinson’s the right information and advice is vital. 40% of patients said they didn’t get enough information at diagnosis. However, more and more people are told about the importance of physical activity, with 83% of people with Parkinson’s saying they’d received information, a welcome increase from the last Audit in 2022.

• Patients are getting most of their medication on time. Patients with Parkinson’s are at risk of significant harm if they don’t get their medication on time (within 30 minutes of the prescribed time). Delays can worsen symptoms like rigidity, pain and tremors, and cause stress and anxiety. The Audit tells us that a significant majority of patients are getting most of their medication doses on time. However, only a minority are getting all their doses on time. When we asked patients, 42% said they got it on time, every time, the same figure as in 2022. 

We’re really grateful to the 8,863 people with Parkinson’s who shared their feedback and to the NHS staff who took part in the Audit.