Fragility Fracture Network UK hip meeting

FFN UK hip fracture review meeting at Wolfson College, Oxford on 8 May 2019.

This multidisciplinary meeting, supported by the BOA, will bring together the leading experts from orthopaedics, geriatrics, anaesthesia, nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, rehabilitation and secondary fracture prevention. However, the emphasis is on discussion and shared-learning, so please bring along your own experiences, suggestions and questions.

The number of places is limited to 120, so please book early by contacting:
oxfordtrauma@ndorms.ox.ac.uk

Priority will be given to ‘teams’ of attendees i.e.…

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New infographics for AHPs summarise NICE guidance

New online infographic posters summarising the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance relevant to allied health professionals are now available online. Produced by the Institute of Osteopathy and endorsed by NICE, these easy to use resources provide a quick reference guide to current NICE guidance which can be printed and displayed in a clinical setting and support CPD.

There are currently three topics available; osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and spondyloarthritis, with plans to develop others in the near future.…

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Public Health letter

In early February, ARMA was one of 55 signatories to an open letter published in The Times newspaper from the Association of Directors of Public Health. The letter argued that public health should be a priority in the Spending Review.

ADPH President Dr Jeanelle de Gruchy said:

“Tackling the root causes of ill health and creating places in which we can all be healthy is the mission of local government. If we undervalue this public health expertise within local government, the NHS Long Term Plan simply cannot be delivered.…

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Ask your MP to attend drop-in event on Aids and Adaptations

Versus Arthritis is excited to report that over 1,000 people have answered the survey on aids and adaptations.

This has provided us with some really useful evidence, which VA will share with MPs next month in Parliament. Versus Arthritis are organising a drop-in session on 20 March 2019 for MPs across the UK.

At the event, MPs will have a chance to meet people with arthritis, find out about the aids and adaptations that have had a positive impact on their lives, and learn about the obstacles that people have faced in accessing aids and adaptations.…

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CEO update – Prevention: putting MSK centre stage

Prevention seems to have been the theme of my February. The possibility that a lot of the pain and disability of MSK conditions might be prevented, and that this is being taken seriously is an exciting prospect. Even where the conditions can’t be prevented, good self-management support can make a big difference to the impact of the condition. The Government is clear that the future sustainability of the NHS depends on prevention, and that it wants to improve healthy life expectancy by at least five extra years, by 2035.…

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MSK health in the construction industry

We all know that MSK is one of the two biggest causes of sickness absence in the UK. It’s perhaps no surprise that this is even more true in the construction sector. Every year, occupational ill‐health costs construction employers £848million in reduced productivity, sick pay, cover for absence and replacing staff who leave because of ill health. 76% of this relates to MSK conditions. In February, ARMA brought together some key players in the construction sector with stakeholders such as Department for Work and Pensions and Health and Safety Executive, to look at what might be done to improve this situation.…

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MSK Core Offer

ARMA has welcomed the inclusion of references to MSK in the NHS Long Term Plan. The real challenge is how to implement this in the local NHS plans. ARMA has set out the “core offer” of MSK services and support which need to be implemented locally if the ambition of the long term plan is to be realised.

The NHS plan states: “Longer-term health conditions also make an increasing contribution to the overall burden of disease. Mental health, respiratory and musculoskeletal conditions are responsible for a substantial amount of poor health and place a substantial burden on the NHS and other care services.”…

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Open Call for Innovative Medicine

FOREUM – Foundation for Research in Rheumatology – announces a programme to support innovative concepts to improve the diagnosis and treatment of Rheumatic Musculoskeletal Diseases (RMDs). This programme is designed as an open research call seeking for the best and most visionary approaches to better understand RMDs and to improve the life of patients with RMDs.

As such, the call is not limited to a specific disease within the RMD spectrum but rather intends to target fundamentally new concepts that have potential to gain concept-changing insights into RMDs.…

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GIRFT spinal surgery

Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) national report calls for short-term pain relief to be replaced with rehabilitation.

GIRFT say that replacing short-term pain relief injections with long-term physical and psychological rehabilitation programmes could help tens of thousands more patients cope with debilitating back pain, in their new report on spinal surgery.

See the spinal surgery report page for more details.

Good design for arthritis – Room to Manoeuvre

Good design touches our lives every day. From the cars we drive to the beds we sleep in, the equipment and products that we use have been constructed to make our lives easier. But often the design decisions fail to take into account those with physical limitations.

Versus Arthritis is concerned that people with arthritis are missing out because designers have not thought about the challenges they face.

As part of the Room to Manoeuvre campaign, VA want more people to understand the impact of arthritis, and to work together to create solutions so that the equipment and spaces people with arthritis use are more effective.…

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