Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance
Influencing policy and care together for best lifelong musculoskeletal health
The RCN Rheumatology Forum is thinking about running a study day in 2017. We’d love to know what you think of the idea, so we’ve created a short survey in order to gather your thoughts.
The link to the survey is https://www.surveymonkey.co.
If you have any questions about using the survey, you can contact RCN Rheumatology Committee Member Polly Livermore at polly.livermore@gosh.nhs.uk
In the meantime, why not follow us on twitter at @RCNrheumforum.…
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National BackCare Awareness Week
3rd – 7th October 2016
‘Caring for Carers’
BackCare is working to help the UK’s carers with this year’s BackCare Awareness week.
For information about the event and how to order your BackCare Awareness Week pack,
please visit: http://www.backcare.org.uk/news/caring-carers-backcare-awareness-week/
The BackCare Christmas Carol Concert
12th December 2016
The Queen’s Chapel, 6:30pm
Queen’s chapel of the Savoy, Savoy Hill, Strand, London, WC2A 0DA
Tickets £18; donations for refreshments welcome.
To pre-order tickets please call 020 8977 5474
or visit http://www.backcaretrading.org.uk/…
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by Dr Jill Firth, BHPR President, Consultant Nurse in Rheumatology and Director for Service Improvement at the Pennine Musculoskeletal Partnership Ltd in Oldham.
Over the past 20 years of working as a special ist nurse, I have witnessed first-hand the changing face of care for people with Musculoskeletal conditions (MSK) – particularly Rheumatoid Arthritis – leading to better outcomes for patients.
This can, in part, be attributed to advances in treatment strategies, including biologic therapies, but is also a consequence of better access to care provided by a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) comprising consultant rheumatologists, specialist nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and podiatrists as a core nucleus.…
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On the 11th May 2016, a Fibromyalgia Awareness event took place in Parliament, hosted by Andrea Jenkyns MP, and organised by Fibromyalgia Action UK (FMA UK).
The event was well attended by MPs, researchers, healthcare professionals, students and people living with fibromyalgia, their families and carers. There will be some exciting outcomes of this event resulting in greater collaboration of different stakeholders in the fibromyalgia field: patient organisations, healthcare professionals, researchers and policy makers.
During the event Dr Toby Garrood, a consultant from the Guy’s Hospital fibromyalgia clinic, gave an overview of the award-winning and excellent fibromyalgia multidisciplinary service, which can act as a role model to be replicated easily and for low-cost in rheumatology departments of hospitals across the country.…
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by Colin Beevor, Matron and Service Manager, Musculoskeletal OPD Services
They say “it’s good to talk” and after the inaugural ARMA Portsmouth Network Meeting, I would agree.
Although leading up to the event you are always worried that you will not get the numbers turning out – I’ll say here that planning was the key to success – I shouldn’t have worried. A small number of the ARMA Local network got behind the event, giving their support and assisting with the details.…
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by Dr Wendy Holden, Consultant Rheumatologist
Around one in seven people in the UK currently live with arthritis. This figure is expected to rise to one in four by 2030 [1]. It is the leading cause of pain and disability, costing the NHS a staggering £5 billion a year [2]. One in five of us consult their GP about a musculoskeletal problem like arthritis each year, that’s more than 100,000 consultations for arthritis every day [3].
Around 15,000 children and young people live with the condition [4].
