The National Orthopaedic Alliance (NOA) is moving forward with plans to create an Orthopaedic Quality Improvement (inc. Clinical Audit) Network. The new network will enable specialist orthopaedic centres to be connected as a primary source of support and expertise in all aspects of quality improvement and clinical audit for orthopaedics. It is being led and coordinated by the NOA as part of its remit to bring together orthopaedic centres around the UK to share best practice and address shared challenges.
MSK & Arthritis News
The NOA welcomes webinar programme lead
Mr Cormac Kelly, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at National Orthopaedic Alliance (NOA) founder member organisation, The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, has joined the NOA as Webinar Programme Lead. Since April 2020, Mr Kelly has played an instrumental role in the delivery of NOA’s COVID-19 webinar series, which continues to provide topical virtual sessions to support NOA members and those across the wider orthopaedic network.
Chronic Pain and the pandemic
Recently, Pain Alliance Europe conducted a 6-week short survey on Covid-19 and chronic pain in twelve languages to see the current situation of chronic pain patients in Europe.
The survey showed initial results that during the pandemic 15% of people worried and feared taking prescribed medication. There was also impact on self-management plans – of those people who had a plan, 29% indicate they are not able to continue with their care plan. From all countries, the respondents in the UK reported the highest impact of pain interfering with their normal functionality.…
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COVID-19 and older people
The Centre for Ageing Better and The Physiological Society have produced a report: A National COVID-19 Resilience Programme.
The report says that home confinement in older people may cause: (i) cardio respiratory and metabolic deconditioning, (ii) insulin resistance, (iii) muscle loss and (iv) increased fat mass. In addition, social isolation may be worsened.
The report makes recommendations including a tailored exercise programme and broad interventions to support increased activity levels; optimising nutrition and embedding behaviour change.
Read the report here [opens in PDF]
Assistive devices survey
The British Assistive Technology Association (BATA) has launched a survey, supported by the WHO’s GATE Programme (Global Cooperation on Assistive Technology), called the UK Priority Assistive Products List National Survey.
It is a survey about the most essential assistive products for people, aiming to create a list similar to the essential medicines list from WHO, of essential assistive devices. This is to help identify priorities of need and improve access for those who require an assistive device.
There are a number of categories, one is mobility.…
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Chronic pain in adults 2017: Health Survey for England
A new report from Public Health England examines data on chronic pain in England and analyses inequalities in the experience of chronic pain. The report will be useful for those commissioning and delivering services for those experiencing chronic pain and policy makers in central and local government. The findings on inequalities include that chronic pain is more prevalent in women than men; in people from the Black ethnic group than other ethnicities; and in those in more deprived areas.
The Global Burden of Disease Study 2016 has highlighted pain as one of the most prominent causes of disability worldwide.…
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MSK Together conference
ARMA’s first ever online multi-disciplinary conference was a great end to a difficult year. We wanted to bring together the whole range of stakeholders from across MSK health, including policy makers and people living with MSK conditions to talk about how we can do things differently and work together.
Two thirds of those completing the feedback described the conference as excellent.
- Happy to be there for a brilliant day! Well done to all – great discussions, speakers and openly discussing challenges & solutions.
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Urgent and Emergency Musculoskeletal Conditions Requiring Onward Referral
Updated guidance was published in December to support primary and community care practitioners in recognising serious pathology which requires emergency or urgent referral to secondary care in people with new or worsening MSK symptoms. Serious pathology as a cause of MSK conditions is considered rare, but it needs to be managed either as an emergency or as urgent onward referral as directed by local pathways. Any part of the MSK system can be affected.
Emergency conditions are serious pathologies which must be dealt with on the day as an emergency.…
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Guest blog: Representation in the workforce
by Hannah Oladugba, Physiotherapist, ACPT Network
When I first decided to become a physiotherapist, I looked to my search engine (I believe this was ‘ASK Jeeves’ at the time) for as much information on the profession as possible. I quickly found that physiotherapy is, traditionally, a profession that has long been perceived as Caucasian and middle class. And even in more recent years, research has shown that, from 2017 to 2018, only 19% of all UK physiotherapy programme student enrolments were from a Black and minority ethnic background.…
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Latest reports available from the Institute of Osteopathy
Key reports exploring the role of osteopaths in supporting NHS services for the benefit of patient care, including the results of research into osteopaths as primary care First Contact Practitioners, have been published and are available from here.