MSK & Arthritis News

Orthopaedic recruitment during COVID

NOA Webinar: COVID Orthopaedic Recovery: National and International recruitment

16 February 2022 at 1pm

The first National Orthopaedic Alliance webinar for 2022 will look at national and international recruitment.

Probably the biggest issue impeding orthopaedic surgery recovery is staffing. Many members of staff have left the NHS, retired early or have long term medical and/or mental health issues that limit their ability to work.

This has resulted in staffing shortages across various orthopaedic services in particular, theatre staffing. Providers are desperate to retain staff but also want to recruit the best people for the job which sometimes means looking overseas.…

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£4 million research funding opportunity

The Nuffield Foundation, in partnership with Versus Arthritis, has announced £4 million for new research funding to improve the social and economic wellbeing of people living with musculoskeletal conditions in the UK. Applicants should develop interdisciplinary proposals that can help identify, develop and enhance non-clinical policy and practice interventions.

The deadline for outline applications is 14 March 2022.
Find out more and apply via the Nuffield Foundation website.

APPG for Osteoporosis and Bone Health Inquiry Report

osteoporosis reportThe All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Osteoporosis and Bone Health published a report into the long-standing postcode lottery in the NHS for osteoporosis care. The report highlights the scale of under-diagnosis, under-treatment and missed opportunities in the NHS, with a blueprint for change. Implementation of the blueprint in England and Wales could save the NHS around £287m over five years – a return on investment of around 3:1 – according to the Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS), which has supported the Inquiry.…

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PCRMM Society NEIAA webinar

PCRMM webinar: National Early Inflammatory Arthritis Audit (NEIAA)
18 January 2022, 7 – 8.30pm

PCRMM is delighted to have the Audit’s Clinical Director, Dr Jo Ledingham, opening the Society’s 2022 series of webinars with this extremely interesting talk about the background of the national early inflammatory arthritis audit (NEIAA).

Dr Ledingham will be justifying the need for and the potential benefits of the Audit; she will clarify what it is looking at and why, offering insights into latest performance and on how data can be used for QI activity.…

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Brace Yourself! PROP-OA knee pain trial

How a research trial will support people living with knee pain and osteoarthritis though advice, exercise and knee braces

Knee pain affects one in four people over 45 years in the UK. The most common cause is osteoarthritis, but many people will suffer without getting the diagnosis.

Osteoarthritis and its symptoms vary a lot and negatively affect people’s daily lives. There is no cure for osteoarthritis, but with treatment, symptoms can be improved and allow people to stay active.

Wearing a knee brace is one of the options that could help by reducing the load going through the joint and improving its stability.…

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Online Pain Toolkit 5-day workshop

Online Pain Toolkit workshop for UK and English-speaking EU residents
Presented by The Pain Toolkit – the home of supported pain self-management.

Many people may not have access to pain management programmes and so the Pain Toolkit has organised a team of experiences coaches to run a 5-day (2.5hrs a day) workshop. The workshop is open to people living with persistent pain, and open to maximum of 10 participants. Pain Toolkit will be running three workshops during 2022 in Canada and Australia.…

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Links added during the WT20 Conference webinar

The following links were added to the chat during the webinar:

Coproduction of healthcare service

NHS Change Challenge

Shared Decision Making for patients on surgical waiting list infographic

Clinical validation of surgical waiting lists: framework and support tools

The Doctor will Zoom you Now

Personalised Care Institute home page

Arthritis Action’s Personalised Member Pathway

National Voices resource on how waiting for care impacts on people

ONS data
For data geeks who want to see the ONS data Natalie mentioned

Public Health Profiles
Public Health England’s fingertips tools on local data on the populations where you live

Patient involvement in rheumatology outpatient service design and delivery

More on the ECHO project:

Project Echo’s “Origin Stories” video.…

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NOA blog: Sustainability in Orthopaedic Surgery

The National Orthopaedic Alliance’s latest guest blog post, Sustainability in Orthopaedic Surgery, comes from Irrum Afzal, Vipin Asopa, Vipul Patel and Deiary Kader of the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre:

Sustainability in surgery continues to gain great traction as global warming and climate change continue to become an ever-growing problem. The NHS is the largest single contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in the public sector and NHS England has an annual carbon footprint of 24.9 million tonnes of CO2e.

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NOA Annual Members’ Conference a success

The 2021 NOA Annual Members’ Conference held on 20 October was an opportunity for staff representing the National Orthopaedic Alliance’s member organisations, patient representatives and NOA partners from across the country, including ARMA, to share achievements, address shared challenges and discuss what’s in store for orthopaedics in the future.

Read more about the day and view a highlights video here.

Introducing The Cornwall Arthritis Trust

Guest Blog by Professor Tony Woolf, Acting Chair and Secretary, Cornwall Arthritis Trust

Cornwall is well known for its coastline, beaches and mixture of rugged countryside with wooded valleys, great gardens and wonderful vistas. Poldark county. A visitor’s paradise but it has all the problems of rural and coastal communities with an economic dependency on agriculture and tourism and a low pay economy. Economic hardship is not immediately obvious but there are Cornish estates that rank among the highest in the league tables for multiple deprivation, and it is one of only two regions of the UK that was eligible for special assistance from Brussels as a result of having incomes per head less than 75% of the EU average.…

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