We are now very close to Bone and Joint Week, which begins on 12 October. It’s a chance to remind everyone of the fundamental importance of MSK health. Today I learned that there is some evidence that people with hip and knee arthritis who don’t receive treatment may die early due to cardiovascular conditions. It makes sense. If you are in too much pain to be active your general health will suffer. Add to this the impact of depression, isolation and loneliness, all of which also affects physical health.…
Read more of this article
Category: CEO Update
Pain and physical activity: complex issues need collaborative solutions
CEO update by Sue Brown
One of the things I love about my job is the variety of things I get involved in. The wide scope of what is covered by musculoskeletal health and the variety of ARMA members, partners and stakeholders means no two days are ever the same. August has been a month to prepare for the exciting variety of activity we have planned including our annual lecture, a roundtable on pain, an event on physical activity and more webinars.…
Read more of this article
Prevention and primary care: opportunities we must all engage
Two things happened in July which will be significant for MSK services: the publication of the Prevention Green Paper Advancing Our Health, and the creation of over 1,200 Primary Care Networks (PCNs) across England. ARMA will be supporting members to engage with the Green Paper and to ensure PCNs deliver what is needed for MSK. We hope all our newsletter readers will get involved too.
I was pleased to see that Advancing Our Health gives plenty of profile to MSK.…
Read more of this article
Good MSK services must include rheumatology, mental health and pain
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is very much on my mind as I write this during RA Awareness Week. Yesterday I attended a roundtable discussing the NHS Long Term Plan (LTP) and RA. Rheumatology doesn’t get a specific mention in the plan, but there is plenty of content on related issues. There is mention of chronic pain, for instance, which is very relevant to ARMA and to RA. Access to integrated pain services is something ARMA members have identified as a priority following the publication of our mental health report last month, and by the time this is published I will have presented at a meeting of the Chronic Pain Policy Coalition.…
Read more of this article
CEO update: Patients with chronic pain deserve nothing less
by Sue Brown, CEO ARMA
I write this reflecting on my day yesterday, which was unexpectedly dominated by discussions on pain. Pain is, of course, something we all talk about a fair bit in the MSK health world, as it’s one of the shared factors that cuts across all MSK conditions. I’m increasingly realising it is something we don’t always deal with particularly well.
My day yesterday began with reading New Scientist on the train, including an article about UK doctors’ concerns that we will follow the US into an opioid crisis.…
Read more of this article
CEO update – MSK Rebellion: a sustainable MSK system
by Sue Brown, ARMA CEO
MSK services seem to me to operate very like an ecosystem. If any part of the system isn’t in balance, the pressures will be felt elsewhere. No ESCAPE-pain means surgeons spending time with people who don’t need surgery; poor understanding of inflammatory conditions in primary care means more pressure on GPs as people don’t reach the rheumatologist; no Fracture Liaison Service means more fractures and more pressure on hospitals. Always the result of the system being out of balance is a person, in pain, not getting what they need.…
Read more of this article
A stronger voice for MSK
CEO update by Sue Brown
March has been a very impactful month for ARMA. My highlight was probably the ARMA roundtable on mental health. The statistics about incidence of mental health amongst people with musculoskeletal conditions don’t surprise me. It’s obvious why long-term pain and difficulty moving would go along with high levels of depression and anxiety. What surprises me is how little support people get with their mental well-being and that’s something ARMA is determined to change.
ARMA members will be discussing what they want to do next on mental health at this week’s members meeting.…
Read more of this article
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.…
Read more of this article
CEO update: Let’s all get on the bandwagon together
As I sat down to write this, NHS Chief Executive Simon Stevens was on the radio talking about plans to increase the ability of patients to see pharmacists and physios rather than a GP as their first point of contact in the NHS. Ensuring we have the right workforce to meet the growing health needs of an ageing population is a real challenge. ARMA’s different professional members have a lot to contribute, as I discovered when I spent a day at the Royal College of Chiropractors conference.…
Read more of this article
CEO update: The NHS Long-Term Plan – it’s what happens next that matters
by Sue Brown, CEO ARMA
The NHS Long-Term plan was published earlier this week. I was pleased to see quite a bit about musculoskeletal health throughout the document. There has been lots of immediate reaction, positive and negative. I think now is the time to focus on the positive, so here are my highlights.
The first reference to musculoskeletal health comes early on, (para 1.17) but seems to be mostly about frailty and older people. Great, I thought as I read this, but MSK isn’t just about older people.…
Read more of this article