Health Policy

New patient decision aid on knee osteoarthritis for primary care

NHS England and NICE have worked together to produce new patient decision aids (also known as Decision Support Tools) last year, including one on knee osteoarthritis. These were developed in accordance with NICE’s standards framework for shared-decision-making support tools, and support making decisions about:

Self-management activities
Using treatments like tablets, creams and injections
Surgery, or wearing special shoes

Patient decision aids enable shared decision making by making treatment, care and support options explicit. They provide evidence-based information about the associated benefits/harms and help people consider what matters most to them in relation to the possible outcomes, including doing nothing.

NICE seeks lay specialist with self-management experience

NICE is looking to appoint two people with lived experience for an assessment of digital platforms for self-management of osteoarthritis and joint pain.

People who have experience of using a digital platform to self-manage their osteoarthritis and/or joint pain are welcome to apply for the lay specialist committee member role. Their experience could be from using platform themselves, caring for someone who has, or working to advocate for people with osteoarthritis. The deadline for applications, via the recruitment software from the vacancy page, is Thursday 6 Feb 2025.…

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ARMA responds to NHS 10-Year Plan Consultation

ARMA has submitted a response to the Government’s consultation on the NHS 10-Year Plan.

The submission was produced with ARMA members who gave their views in a series of meetings. The response calls for MSK conditions to have the long-overdue acknowledgment and equal footing alongside other long-term conditions and highlights the substantial impact that MSK conditions have on individuals’ lives, the NHS and the wider economy.

You can read ARMA’s submission here.

NHS Change – 10-Year Plan Consultation

The Government has launched ‘Change NHS: help build a health service fit for the future’ to gather feedback to inform decision making on the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan for England.

Organisations are invited to share their responses to the consultation by 2 December via the online platform, change.nhs.uk.

Members of the public, as well as NHS staff and health experts are also invited to share their experiences, views and ideas for fixing the NHS, with the website remaining open for these responses until the start of next year.…

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Supporting healthy behaviours

by Sue Brown, CEO ARMA

It was a pleasure to join the CSP conference last week to speak about our Act Now report and what MSK physios can do to address health inequalities. As ever, lots of enthusiasm from people wanting to work on this. Our workshop was packed and 75% of people said they felt it was going to be difficult to do this but they were up for a challenge.

We asked what support would help people to make progress on inequalities.…

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The ROS attends political party conferences

The Royal Osteoporosis Society recently attended the Labour and Conservative Party Conferences with a team of volunteers, attending over 40 fringe events to advocate for universal, high-quality Fracture Liaison Services (FLS).

At the Labour Conference, Health Secretary Wes Streeting reiterated his commitment to delivering universal FLS by 2030, praising ROS for building a strong case for secondary prevention.

Public Health Minister Andrew Gwynne also voiced his support for the Better Bones campaign for universal FLS, ensuring the issue remains high on the agenda ahead of the Budget.

Over to you Prime Minister

by Sue Brown, CEO ARMA

After two days in Belfast launching the ARMA MSK Health Inequalities report in Northern Ireland, I found myself on the plane back to England drafting the ARMA response to the Darzi report. I don’t think there are any new revelations in the report. Yet I do think it is important, and something everyone concerned about MSK health should take seriously. I recognise the truth in what it says.

Lord Darzi was asked to carry out an independent investigation into the NHS in England with a very short timescale.…

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ARMA response to the Darzi report

12/9/24

The Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance (ARMA) welcomes the publication of the Darzi report recognising the serious and widespread problems in the NHS. In particular we welcome the recognition of the need for an increased focus on community services and prevention.

As Lord Darzi recognises in his report, Musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions are one of the biggest causes of people being unable to work due to ill health in the UK. A significant proportion of this MSK ill health is preventable and community MSK services are vital to supporting all those with MSK conditions.…

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Ensuring MSK is in the new ten year plan

by Sue Brown, CEO ARMA

On the morning of 5 July 2024, ARMA members gathered on Zoom for initial reflections on the election result. The date had been set many months ago, and it wasn’t the ideal timing. Since then, we have had a little more time to see just what the new government would do. It is too early to say if this will be a turning point for the future of health and healthcare, but they have certainly not wasted any time.…

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Will you join us?

by Sue Brown, CEO ARMA

In the last few weeks we have had two new organisations join ARMA – welcome to Lupus UK and National Spine Network. As I write this, I have just received another inquiry about membership so that may soon be three new members.

This is a good time for ARMA’s membership to be growing. I’m writing in the run up to the general election. The airwaves are filled with parties bidding for your vote, making wild claims and undeliverable promises.…

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