Author: Garreth

New Hips & Knees: Britian’s Longest Queue?

With numbers on the NHS waiting list at a record high of 7.75 million and rising, on the 30th of November 2023, ITV’s flagship current affairs programme ‘ITV Tonight’ focused on the huge waiting lists for joint replacement surgery: Tonight – Series 25 – Episode 35 – ITVX

With input from Versus Arthritis, Dr Zoe Williams investigates the health impacts on the estimated one million-plus people currently waiting, in some cases for years, for trauma and orthopaedic treatment. The programme looked behind those figures and into the lives of those waiting in pain for transformative orthopaedic treatment, explored whether surgery is the only option for patients in severe pain, and discussed how people can wait as well as possible whilst awaiting treatment.…

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King’s Fund resources on health inequalities

As the conversation grows around health inequalities, we wanted to highlight three recent resources.

This King’s Fund podcast episode from 29th November explores how the NHS waiting list for elective care can be better managed to improve health equity. A really interesting discussion of the ethics, impact on patients and healthcare professionals, policy decisions and controversies around how waiting lists are managed and prioritised.

Ruth Roberston invites Dr Mark Ratnarajah, UK Managing Director at C2-Ai, Sharon Brennan, Director of Policy and External Affairs at National Voices and Dr Polly Mitchell, Post Doctoral Research Fellow in Bioethics and Public Policy at King’s College London to share their expertise. …

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Health & Wellbeing at Work

Registration is now open for the UK’s most established workplace health and wellbeing event, Health & Wellbeing at Work, 12-13 March 2024 NEC, Birmingham.

Early bird rates are available for a limited time only. Take advantage of this offer with early bird tickets starting at just £69+VAT, book now to SAVE £10 compared to standard ticket prices!

What’s on?

  • Over 150 sessions, workshops and masterclasses delivered by the industry’s leading experts and thought-leaders.
  • 12 conference streams to discover the latest the latest trends and debate emerging topics.
…

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Musculoskeletal orthopaedic approach to referral optimisation

MSK flow chartNHS England has published Musculoskeletal orthopaedic approach to referral optimisation, a guidance document developed by the Outpatient Recovery and Transformation Programme (OPRT) and BestMSK Health Collaborative.

This guidance describes the benefits of referral optimisation in adult services managing musculoskeletal conditions, focusing on the use of specialist advice to enable people to be seen by the right person, at the right time and in the right place.

It makes the case for change to sustain high quality care, manage risk and optimise capacity across primary, community and secondary care MSK services.…

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It’s not all about MSK

ARMA CEOby Sue Brown, CEO ARMA

A few days ago the Chief Medical officer, Chris Whitty, published his report for 2023 entitled health in an ageing society. I’m sure many of you will immediately seek out the MSK related content, skimming straight to the section on early diagnosis of osteoporosis or the case studies on ESCAPE-pain and MSK hubs. However, those are not the bits I think are most important for us.

The big take away message for me is the section on multi-morbidity.…

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The Handling of People is on general sale

The Handling of People 7th edition (HOP7) is now available. With over ten years passing since the 6th edition, it is a long-awaited publication for those working in both emergency and non-emergency healthcare settings.

As a charity with no government funding, BackCare wants to thank those who helped sponsor it, and importantly the editorial team and co-authors who did an amazing job. They adopted an inclusive, cross-professional approach to scoping and synthesising the shape and outline content of the publication with input from a very wide range of contributors and peer reviewers.…

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Airing Pain: Childhood Pain – Adverse Experiences

Childhood painThe new edition of Airing Pain explores the relationship between childhood trauma and chronic pain in adolescence and adulthood. Episode 140 is about how early childhood experiences and trauma in formative years can cause changes on a structural and functional level in the brain that can predispose young people to pain alongside a wide range of health conditions.

It is now available to listen to here.
The full transcript is available online to download, as well as a captioned video on Youtube.…

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Upcoming courses from Versus Arthritis

Core Skills in Musculoskeletal Care Workshop

Core skills logoWednesday 6th March 2024, 9-5pm
Dunadry Hotel, Antrim

We are excited to be heading to Northern Ireland in March 2024 to deliver a full day Core Skills in Musculoskeletal Care interactive session, providing practical, hands-on learning and the opportunity to come together with peers to share knowledge and problem solving. This course is accredited by the RCGP and endorsed by the British Society for Rheumatology.

What will I learn?

The workshop is split into three main sections (example agenda):

  • Low back pain and sciatica
  • Lower limb (with a focus on the knee)
  • Upper limb (with a focus on the shoulder)

What are the key learning outcomes?…

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