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Alastair Church

Alastair Church

Dr Alistair Church is a GP principal in Gwent, South Wales, and consultant neurologist at the Royal Gwent Hospital specialising in Parkinson's disease and movement disorders.

Sep 9, 2026

4:18
What's the pattern of symptoms and signs that I might encounter, including ones that I might not necessarily have thought of?
4:26
I mean, it's quite variable, and that's what makes the job quite interesting.
4:29
You know, that what we're typically taught at medical school is you would make a diagnosis of Parkinson's, which is still a clinical diagnosis, so there are no specific tests really that are helpful.
4:39
And we're looking for people with slowness and stiffness of movement.
4:42
But actually, we know that by the time you have slowness and stiffness of movement, you may have had Parkinson's for more than 10 years.
4:48
So there's a big move now for trying to pick it up before the motor manifestation, so the pre-motor Parkinson's.
4:55
And these are pretty non-specific, so it's very difficult to be definitive at the time.

6 MINS LATER

11:06
My ne- next question was gonna be, what is the GP's role in management of Parkinson's disease? But it sounds like you've just said that they are now encouraged to refer straight away.

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