MSK & Arthritis News

Guest Blog: Implementing the national clinical audit recommendations

ali-guest-blog-nlby Ali Rivett, Director of Clinical Affairs, BSR

The first annual report was published in January and revealed wide variation in care across England and Wales. This is consistent with how other national audits have reported in their first year and we expect to identify where improvements have been made following the analysis for the 2nd cohort.

To date, we have disseminated the report to all participating trusts, health boards and commissioning groups and will be presenting further analysis at the BSR annual conference in April.…

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Preventing musculoskeletal disorders has wider impacts for public health

From the Public Health Matters blog, Public Health England
, 11 January 2016 — Health and Wellbeing

Life expectancy in England has risen by more than five years in the past two decades, yet for many people, a longer life will involve more years spent in ill-health.

Earlier this year, The Global Burden of Disease project – an international study ranking the diseases and risk factors that cause death and disability – highlighted the toll that musculoskeletal conditions are taking on people’s health.…

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Guest Blog: What a time to leave

by Sarah Wright, Policy and Public Affairs Officer, ARMA

Well, what a time to be leaving ARMA! We’re finally starting to get the recognition that MSK deserves and this Alliance of organisations is now recognised as the place to go to for solutions to the MSK problem. But let’s not open the champagne just yet, there is still a great deal of work to do and what a perfect time to hand over the ARMA baton to someone to take it to the next level.…

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Guest Blog: An Opportunity for Joint Action

ADWoolf-x200_nlby Professor Anthony Woolf, Chair of ARMA and Chair of the Bone and Joint Decade: A Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health

Musculoskeletal conditions continue to be the greatest cause of disability in the UK according to the Global Burden of Disease study [click for summary], accounting for 30%. Low back pain is the greatest specific cause of disability and osteoarthritis is increasing with ageing of the population and increasing obesity. We, the MSK community, have always known the impact these problems have on people and society but now policy makers cannot escape from the facts and have to come up with policies to prevent and manage them more effectively.…

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HSJ Investigation: ‘Unwarranted and unfair’ disparity in elective surgery revealed

HSJ-2015_squareWide variations in elective surgery rates among the most affluent and deprived areas in England raise serious questions about the use of NHS resources, a leading public health expert has warned.

1 October, 2015 | By Lawrence Dunhill, Health Service Journal.

  • HSJ investigation finds huge disparities in rates for elective surgery in affluent and deprived populations
  • Experts warn the variance raises serious questions about use of NHS resources
  • Disparity in elective surgery commissioning

HSJ’s investigation, which examined the rates for elective surgery funded by the clinical commissioning groups covering the 10 most affluent and 10 most deprived populations in the country, has revealed huge disparities.…

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A world where people can live active lives, free from arthritis pain

by Dr Wendy Holden, Consultant Rheumatologist

arthritis-action-2015-member-logo

Around one in seven people in the UK currently live with arthritis. This figure is expected to rise to one in four by 2030 [1]. It is the leading cause of pain and disability, costing the NHS a staggering £5 billion a year [2]. One in five of us consult their GP about a musculoskeletal problem like arthritis each year, that’s more than 100,000 consultations for arthritis every day [3].

Around 15,000 children and young people live with the condition [4].



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Guest Blog – Gout deserves to be taken seriously

by Lynsey Conway, UK Gout Society Secretariat

Lynsey-conway-nlI first became involved with the UK Gout Society 13 years ago. Like many people who have never experienced this excruciatingly painful condition, I had treated gout as a bit of a joke and had bought into the common misconception that it was solely an affliction of old men – and a product of high living. I soon realised, however, after reading many desperate letters and hundreds of heart-wrenching emails, that gout was not a laughing matter – and could affect anyone.…

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Guest Blog – Nursing and MSK

BrianLucas-x214-newsletterby Dr Brian Lucas, Chair Royal College of Nursing‘s Society of Orthopaedic and Trauma Nursing (SOTN), Lead Nurse Education and Development The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Trust

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN)’s Society of Orthopaedic and Trauma Nursing (SOTN) is a professional forum with approximately 3,000 nurses who work in diverse roles within primary and secondary care. This diversity can be a strength, but it can also be a weakness: we are everywhere but spread thinly in places, so sometimes it is difficult to get our voice heard.…

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Guest Blog: Empowering our members to take action through self-management

by Shantel Irwin, CEO Arthritis Action
shantel-irwin-arthritis-action-ceo-square
Corks were flying on June 18th 2015 for me and my team at Arthritis Action as we officially launched with our new name, new look and new direction.

The last 12 months have been transformational for our charity. After more than a year of research, review, redesign and reform, Arthritis Action finally relaunched at The King’s Fund to an audience of more than 100 members and guests from across the musculoskeletal health sector.

We were delighted to welcome so many friends and colleagues at our event, which gave us the chance to outline our rationale for change, what we stand for, what we do and where we’re heading.…

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Guest Blog: From desk to home caring – backs are a problem!

BackCare-CEO-Stuart-Blackman2by Stuart Blackman, CEO of BackCare

I am really enjoying working with BackCare as the new Chief Executive. We are at the cusp of a new phase of development of the charity. BackCare is the UK’s national back pain charity, founded 1968 – our mission is to turn the tide on back pain, the world’s leading cause of human disability. We do this through research, education and outreach initiatives.

Our new website is now the primary platform through which we can reach out to our key stakeholders: patients, clinicians, researchers, educators and our corporate supporters.…

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