MSK & Arthritis News

ORUK joins ARMA

Last week saw ARMA welcome new member,  Orthopaedic Research UK (ORUK), to the alliance.

ORUK funds breakthrough research and education programmes in bone, joint and muscle wellbeing to reduce the burden of poor musculoskeletal health on individuals, workplaces and our health system.  The charity was established in 1989 by the orthopaedic surgeon Ronald Furlong FRCS and has become one of the most significant funders of musculoskeletal research, education and innovation in the UK, working alongside many of the UK’s leading MSK professionals and institutions. …

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#SolvingTogether hip and knee replacement challenge

#SolvingTogether is an initiative to capture, assess, test and share ideas that support elective recovery. It was initiated by Director of Transformation for NHS England and Improvement Tim Ferris. It takes the form of a crowdsourcing platform where people can post ideas, backed up by tweet chats.

The major phase of #SolvingTogether will start in mid-February 2022. It will consist of six challenges that we will ask a huge range of people to respond to: people working at the point of care, service users and families, clinical and managerial leaders, partners in other sectors and clinical innovators and entrepreneurs.…

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FLS amendment to the Health and Care Bill

Lord Black’s amendment to the Health and Care Bill calling for equal access to FLS

On 20 January 2022, the House of Lords were again debating the Health and Care Bill and Lord Black of Brentwood put forward an amendment to the Bill which would make Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) a core service offered by the NHS in England.

Lord Black’s amendment received cross-party support and was co-signed by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, Lord Rennard and Baroness Masham of Ilton.…

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Rheumatology PIFU guidance

The updated rheumatology PIFU (Patient Initiated Follow-Up) guidance is now on NHS England and NHS Improvement’s FutureNHS platform. The document is aimed at clinicians, service managers and commissioners the guidance supports the appropriate, safe, and sustainable implementation and delivery of PIFU for people with rheumatological conditions who are under the care of adult rheumatology services. 

See it on the FutureNHS platform (account required).

The guidance can be viewed in “draft” form at this link, once signed off, it will be published on the NHSE website.…

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Arthritis Action Marks 80th Anniversary

2022 marks 80 years of Arthritis Action supporting communities affected by arthritis, with a year of special events and activities. To commemorate this milestone anniversary, the charity introduces a year-long campaign of events and activities recognising the members, partners, volunteers, and organisations who have shown their generous support over the past eight decades.

Some highlighted activities planned for the following months include:

  • Arthritis Action’s 80 Faces Campaign, celebrating 80 of the charity’s closest supporters and thanking them for their vital help throughout the past 80 years
  • The #kickupschallenge launch event, a challenge event on social media
  • An 80 Portraits challenge, with Arthritis Action’s Corporate Partnerships Manager Victoria Clarke, commissioned to paint 80 Portraits over the next twelve months with proceeds donated to the 80th Anniversary fund
  • A report developed in partnership with YouGov, looking at the state of play and needs of working-age people currently living with arthritis in Great Britain
  • An ‘80 Miles’ walking challenge with Arthritis Action’s Dietitian and Services Development Manager, Martin Lau

Full information on the campaign plans can be found on Arthritis Action’s 80th Anniversary page.…

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Vitamin D and Calcium webinar

Vitamin D and Calcium – an overview with a focus on bone health
PCRMM webinar, Tuesday 1 March 2022, 7 – 8.30pm

This webinar about calcium and vitamin D will cover: indications for testing; interpretation and significance of abnormal results; calcium and vitamin D replacement; and, a brief overview of the evidence and clinical need for calcium and vitamin D replacement in the context of musculoskeletal disease.

This extremely interesting and topical webinar will be run by Dr Zoe Paskins and Dr Sarah Hardcastle.…

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NOA Annual Members’ Conference 2022 – call for speakers

The second National Orthopaedic Alliance (NOA) Annual Members’ Conference will take place in Birmingham on Wednesday 19 October 2022 and the NOA is now accepting submissions for speakers. Do you have a project, best practice or opportunity you would like to share with NOA members on the day? To put forward a speaker email info.noa@nhs.net by 1 March 2022. Find out more on the NOA website. 

Guest blog: Working in partnership to reduce inequalities in MSK health

by Adanna Williams, BestMSK Health Collaborative, Deputy Director

This week many of us are returning to work or starting our first week of 2022 having had a difficult Christmas period supporting and delivering services. I am mindful that the impact of focusing efforts to combat the Omicron variant has the potential to widen health inequalities. I have acknowledged how challenging this can be for those who need to access our services and those who are awaiting interventions.

In the BestMSK Healthcare Collaborative programme (an NHS England and Improvement programme), equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) continues to be a key priority.…

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COVID-19 update video – Hope on the horizon

Hope on the horizon for immuno-suppressed/compromised individuals

The National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, in partnership with ARMA, delivered a Facebook live session on vaccination and new COVID-19 treatments aimed at anyone who is immunosuppressed.

Watch the recording to learn about a new scheme to rapidly get treatments to those who are immunocompromised and a trial of treatments for those over 50 or with certain risk factors.

 

On the precipice

We all look forward to 2022 with some trepidation. We don’t know how much impact Omicron will have on the NHS, the population, and our own families. 2021 was a year of challenge and also of incredible achievements. A vaccination programme which has now provided all adults with the opportunity for three doses, four in some cases; which has delivered boosters to three quarters of the eligible population; which delivered 1.6 million boosters in the final week of the year. None of this just happened.…

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