Guest Blog | ARMA

Guest Blog: RightCare and MSK: increasing value and reducing variation

by Professor Matthew Cripps, National Director of NHS RightCare

It’s now six months since NHS RightCare was launched nationally. This involved 65 local health economies (‘wave one’) receiving support and facilitation to embed the approach, and we’re still growing as a programme to roll out to the 144 remaining health economies in England at the end of 2016.

Things are progressing at pace with the first 65, we’re at the exciting point now where CCGs have confirmed their big opportunities for improvement, taking Commissioning for Value insight as their starting point.…

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Guest Blog: All hands on deck to tackle rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases

by Dr Peter Lanyon, Consultant Rheumatologist, Nottingham University Hospital;
President, British Society for Rheumatology

Two months ago, at our annual national conference on the banks of the Clyde, it was a privilege to start my elected term of office as President of the British Society for Rheumatology. And I’m very excited to be serving BSR in this role. Our members are front-line clinicians, nurses and allied health professionals working across the health community. Every day, and sometimes 24/7, they deliver care to try and improve the lives of people living with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases.…

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Guest Blog: Solving the puzzle of Musculoskeletal Service transformation

by Professor Peter Kay, National Clinical Director for Musculoskeletal Services for NHS England.

I was asked to write a blog to raise the profile of my MSK work supported by the Long-Term Conditions Team and, through the cryptic labyrinth of various schemes and initiatives, share with you my thoughts on how we can support sustainable, cost-effective transformation whilst still championing the more person-centred approach.

Easy task right?

Increasingly we are faced with the challenge of implementing population-level interventions in a bid to tackle unwarranted variation within our local areas.…

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Helping people to escape the misery of chronic joint pain – A musculoskeletal network in action.

by Professor Michael Hurley, Clinical Director,
Musculoskeletal Programme, Health Innovation Network South London

Along with many others in the musculoskeletal community, I get a tired of hearing about other long term conditions which continuously feature in the headlines – both in national media and NHS policy. Poor old ‘common’ joint pain is neither sexy nor headline-grabbing, but we all know how much it impairs the quality of life – none more so than the people who suffer it.

In the musculoskeletal programme of the Health Innovation Network (South London’s Academic Health Science Network http://www.hin-southlondon.org/clinical-areas/musculoskeletal…

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Guest Blog: MSK Clinical Network Project

by Sarah Marsh, National Policy Lead, Long Term Conditions, NHS England

As we begin the new financial year and our plans for the upcoming months become more structured, I thought it would be a good opportunity to share my thoughts on the challenges heading our way; as well as a chance to share our ideas and reinforce our bid for your support as we further the momentum of all the work streams, including the MSK Knowledge Network Programme.

My aim for this coming year is to continue to support our programme strategies whilst reinforcing the links established with other MSK work ongoing within NHS England and our partner organisations: Department of Health, Public Health England and Health Education England.…

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Guest Blog: Looking back to move forward

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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Guest Blog: Implementing the national clinical audit recommendations

by Ali Rivett, Director of Clinical Affairs, BSR

The first annual report was published in January and revealed wide variation in care across England and Wales. This is consistent with how other national audits have reported in their first year and we expect to identify where improvements have been made following the analysis for the 2^nd cohort.

To date, we have disseminated the report to all participating trusts, health boards and commissioning groups and will be presenting further analysis at the BSR annual conference in April.…

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Guest Blog: What a time to leave

by Sarah Wright, Policy and Public Affairs Officer, ARMA

Well, what a time to be leaving ARMA! We’re finally starting to get the recognition that MSK deserves and this Alliance of organisations is now recognised as the place to go to for solutions to the MSK problem. But let’s not open the champagne just yet, there is still a great deal of work to do and what a perfect time to hand over the ARMA baton to someone to take it to the next level.…

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Guest Blog: An Opportunity for Joint Action

by Professor Anthony Woolf, Chair of ARMA and Chair of the Bone and Joint Decade: A Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health

Musculoskeletal conditions continue to be the greatest cause of disability in the UK according to the Global Burden of Disease study [click for summary], accounting for 30%. Low back pain is the greatest specific cause of disability and osteoarthritis is increasing with ageing of the population and increasing obesity. We, the MSK community, have always known the impact these problems have on people and society but now policy makers cannot escape from the facts and have to come up with policies to prevent and manage them more effectively.…

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A world where people can live active lives, free from arthritis pain

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].

…

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