Category: CEO Update

MSK health: Not just for Bone and Joint Week

Bone and Joint Week is over for another year, and what a fantastic week it was, thanks to the support of our members and key stakeholders. It’s a one week blitz of MSK messaging on social media, raising awareness and prompting action. This year we had an even bigger reach than ever. But it doesn’t end there.

We need to keep raising the profile of MSK for the other 51 weeks of the year. During the week there were ARMA blogs on the NHS England and NHS Confederation websites explaining the importance of MSK health to the NHS.…

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Do one thing to prioritise MSK health

We are now very close to Bone and Joint Week, which begins on 12 October. It’s a chance to remind everyone of the fundamental importance of MSK health. Today I learned that there is some evidence that people with hip and knee arthritis who don’t receive treatment may die early due to cardiovascular conditions. It makes sense. If you are in too much pain to be active your general health will suffer. Add to this the impact of depression, isolation and loneliness, all of which also affects physical health.…

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Pain and physical activity: complex issues need collaborative solutions

CEO update by Sue Brown

One of the things I love about my job is the variety of things I get involved in. The wide scope of what is covered by musculoskeletal health and the variety of ARMA members, partners and stakeholders means no two days are ever the same.  August has been a month to prepare for the exciting variety of activity we have planned including our annual lecture, a roundtable on pain, an event on physical activity and more webinars.…

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Prevention and primary care: opportunities we must all engage

Two things happened in July which will be significant for MSK services: the publication of the Prevention Green Paper Advancing Our Health, and the creation of over 1,200 Primary Care Networks (PCNs) across England. ARMA will be supporting members to engage with the Green Paper and to ensure PCNs deliver what is needed for MSK. We hope all our newsletter readers will get involved too.

I was pleased to see that Advancing Our Health gives plenty of profile to MSK.…

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Good MSK services must include rheumatology, mental health and pain

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is very much on my mind as I write this during RA Awareness Week. Yesterday I attended a roundtable discussing the NHS Long Term Plan (LTP) and RA. Rheumatology doesn’t get a specific mention in the plan, but there is plenty of content on related issues. There is mention of chronic pain, for instance, which is very relevant to ARMA and to RA. Access to integrated pain services is something ARMA members have identified as a priority following the publication of our mental health report last month, and by the time this is published I will have presented at a meeting of the Chronic Pain Policy Coalition.…

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CEO update: Patients with chronic pain deserve nothing less

by Sue Brown, CEO ARMA

I write this reflecting on my day yesterday, which was unexpectedly dominated by discussions on pain. Pain is, of course, something we all talk about a fair bit in the MSK health world, as it’s one of the shared factors that cuts across all MSK conditions. I’m increasingly realising it is something we don’t always deal with particularly well.

My day yesterday began with reading New Scientist on the train, including an article about UK doctors’ concerns that we will follow the US into an opioid crisis.…

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CEO update – MSK Rebellion: a sustainable MSK system

by Sue Brown, ARMA CEO

MSK services seem to me to operate very like an ecosystem.  If any part of the system isn’t in balance, the pressures will be felt elsewhere. No ESCAPE-pain means surgeons spending time with people who don’t need surgery; poor understanding of inflammatory conditions in primary care means more pressure on GPs as people don’t reach the rheumatologist; no Fracture Liaison Service means more fractures and more pressure on hospitals. Always the result of the system being out of balance is a person, in pain, not getting what they need.…

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A stronger voice for MSK

CEO update by Sue Brown

March has been a very impactful month for ARMA. My highlight was probably the ARMA roundtable on mental health. The statistics about incidence of mental health amongst people with musculoskeletal conditions don’t surprise me. It’s obvious why long-term pain and difficulty moving would go along with high levels of depression and anxiety. What surprises me is how little support people get with their mental well-being and that’s something ARMA is determined to change.

ARMA members will be discussing what they want to do next on mental health at this week’s members meeting.…

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CEO update – Prevention: putting MSK centre stage

Prevention seems to have been the theme of my February. The possibility that a lot of the pain and disability of MSK conditions might be prevented, and that this is being taken seriously is an exciting prospect. Even where the conditions can’t be prevented, good self-management support can make a big difference to the impact of the condition. The Government is clear that the future sustainability of the NHS depends on prevention, and that it wants to improve healthy life expectancy by at least five extra years, by 2035.…

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CEO update: Let’s all get on the bandwagon together

As I sat down to write this, NHS Chief Executive Simon Stevens was on the radio talking about plans to increase the ability of patients to see pharmacists and physios rather than a GP as their first point of contact in the NHS. Ensuring we have the right workforce to meet the growing health needs of an ageing population is a real challenge. ARMA’s different professional members have a lot to contribute, as I discovered when I spent a day at the Royal College of Chiropractors conference.…

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