At 7pm on 21 September 2020, people living with musculoskeletal conditions and healthcare professionals and policy influencers congregated in anticipation of a tweet chat on Twitter – ‘Power to the People.’
The tweet chat encompassed co-production of a new NHS MSK strategy – patients and healthcare professionals improving care together. The discussion for that hour involved 51 people, 279 posts, 1197 engagements. The #MSKCoPro was seen over half a million times by over 100,000 users.
If you missed it, there were too many tweets to publish them all, but here are some of the themes that emerged in response to questions about:
- The benefits of coproduction
- What gets in the way
- What helps
- Practical examples of coproduction in action
Please feel free to continue the chat using #MSKCoPro.
Read more of this article
ESCAPE-pain has been awarded the ‘MSK Care Initiative of the Year’ at the HSJ Value Awards 2020.
In just over a week’s time, the Royal College of Nursing’s Rheumatology Nursing Forum will be hosting a free webinar looking at the progression of the specialism. The event takes place on the 13 October starting at 6.30pm.
With cases of COVID-19 currently rising across the UK, there are discussions of a second wave resulting in a spike in COVID-19 -related hospital admissions this autumn. In the first wave many of the activities of the NHS were put on hold as a precaution to preserve capacity. This was understandable in the face of a rapidly escalating and unpredictable threat. However, the BOA is keen to help ensure that in the event of a second wave the normal care of our patients is only suspended as a consequence of absolute necessity.…

Versus Arthritis has launched a new free physical activity programme, Let’s Move with Leon, designed and presented by exercise expert Leon Wormley who specialises in working with people with arthritis and related conditions. The programme consists of weekly 30-minute movement sessions delivered right to a subscriber’s email inbox. Leon’s classes are a holistic, full-body programme and – they’re great fun!
In July and August 2020, NRAS ran a survey asking about the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on the working lives of people living with rheumatoid arthritis or another form of inflammatory arthritis.
On 7 November 2020, NASS will be hosting a new event for any affected by axial SpA (AS).

Last month’s newsletter included a blog about how NHS England/Improvement is working in partnership with people with lived experience of MSK conditions to “co-produce” work on MSK services. In September, over fifty people joined our tweet chat on co-production. In the course of an hour, professionals and people with MSK conditions engaged in lively discussion and debate about what helps coproduction, what gets in the way and good examples in practice. A