MSK & Arthritis News

by Chris Maker, Director of LUPUS UK One of the biggest problems for people who have lupus is obtaining a diagnosis. During 2009 LUPUS UK posted a survey questionnaire to all 5,700 members asking them to provide information about how lupus impacts on their lives. The response was overwhelming with over 3,000 completed questionnaires being returned. The summary of findings was:

• It was taking, on average, more than 7 years to diagnose lupus from the first symptom experienced – this had not improved over a 20 year period.

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by Sue Browning, Deputy CEO, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy

The scale of the challenge presented by how we are going to pay for care in the future is daunting. Adults with long-term and multiple conditions and disabilities are living longer, but according to the recent National Audit Office report¹, the older adults social care budget has experienced the greatest reduction over recent years – 12% in real terms. Given that the age group of adults aged 85+, the group most likely to need care, is rising faster than the population as a whole, we know that something has to change.…

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by Nick Pahl, CEO of the British Acupuncture Council

2014 is the centenary of the start of the First World War. Certainly I don’t want to suffer what happened to Asquith the then Prime Minister. Allegedly, he used to spend Cabinet meetings translating dispatches from the front into Latin verse, believing there was little else he could do with them … my lesson from this is that we need to ensure we respond to concerns, particularly from patients and the public.…

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By Ailsa Bosworth, CEO of the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society

In November 2011 the then Minister for Long Term Conditions, Paul Burstow MP, commissioned health officials to conduct a scoping exercise into early diagnosis across the health service to understand the extent of delayed diagnosis and its impact on patients. At around the same time the Coalition Government launched a national dementia awareness campaign to encourage people to spot the early signs of the disease and earmarked £10 million for dementia memory services to improve early diagnosis and treatment of the condition.…

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