Category: Health Policy

Building back inclusively

NHS reportThe NHS Confederation has published a briefing on Building back inclusively: Radical approaches to tackling the elective backlog.

There is evidence suggesting that waiting lists have grown more rapidly in more deprived areas during the pandemic. There are good reasons to believe that the current approach to elective care, whereby patients are treated in the order they present for care, exacerbates inequalities and worsens health outcomes. The briefing sets out a package of measures, including the politically uncomfortable step of proactively growing the waiting list to address this.…

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Impacts of COVID-19 on deconditioning and falls

Public Health England has published a report on the wider impacts of COVID-19 on physical activity, deconditioning and falls in older adults. The study modelled the likely effect of the decrease in strength and balance activity observed during the pandemic on people who experience a fall, the number of falls and associated health and social care costs.

Key findings

Some of the key findings were:

  • 32% of older people were inactive between March to May 2020. This has increased from 27% in the corresponding period in 2019;
  • average duration of strength and balance activity decreased from 126 to 77 minutes per week, with the greatest change in the 70 to 74 age group;
  • without mitigation, modelling predicts that 110,000 more older people (an increase of 3.9%) are projected to have at least one fall per year as a result of reduced strength and balance activity during the pandemic.
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COVID-19: Life on hold for NHS patients needing musculoskeletal care

In June 2021 the British Medical Journal online featured an article ‘COVID-19: “Life on hold” for NHS patients needing musculoskeletal care’.  The article reported on the effect on the pandemic on people needing musculoskeletal NHS services, tackling NHS backlogs resulting from cancelled primary and secondary care appointments, and the BestMSK Health NHSE programme.

Read the article in full.

Have your say on the Musculoskeletal Advanced Practice and Governance Framework

Advanced Musculoskeletal (MSK) practice has been developing for many years, playing an integral part within the delivery of health services nationally. MSK practitioners work in diverse settings including emergency, rheumatology, persistent pain, paediatric and therapies, as well as in primary and community care and in MSK secondary care interface services.

Skills for Health is inviting feedback on a new core capability framework for MSK Advanced Practice and Governance. They are keen to hear from Advanced Practitioners, Advanced Practitioners in training, the wider healthcare team, employers, training providers, patients and carers to ensure the framework reflects what is needed in the sector.…

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ROS, bone health parliamentary group & FLS

Royal Osteoporosis Society supports APPG on Osteoporosis and Bone Health inquiry into Fracture Liaison Service provision

The Royal Osteoporosis Society provides the secretariat to the recently established All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Osteoporosis and Bone Health. The APPG was launched in March 2021 and its first act was to open an inquiry into the postcode lottery for access to Fracture Liaison Services (FLS).

The inquiry is currently well underway. Written evidence submissions were invited throughout June, and two successful oral evidence sessions took place in July.…

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NASS launches campaign to achieve Gold Standard Time to Diagnosis for Axial SpA

On 22 June 2021, the National Axial Spondyloarthritis Society (NASS) launched the Act on Axial SpA campaign.

It currently takes an average of 8.5 years to diagnose axial SpA. This is too long, and NASS aims to drive this down this down by introducing the world’s first Gold Standard Time to Diagnosis of just one year.

Axial spondyloarthritis is an inflammatory disease of the spine and joints. Inflammation where muscles attach to the bones, causes extreme pain. If left untreated, it can permanently fuse bones together.…

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Guest blog: Supporting people living with long term pain

What does the recent NICE guidance mean for pain clinics in this country?

Personal view from Alf Collins, Clinical Director for Personalised Care, NHS England and NHS Improvement

The recently published NICE guidance re: chronic pain management 1 has enjoyed a mixed reception. The purpose of the guidance is to improve the lives of people living with long term pain by improving the quality of pain management services across the NHS but many commentators, patient groups and national professional bodies have not been slow to criticise it, citing that implementation could lead to significant patient harm.…

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Implementing patient-initiated follow-up in rheumatology

New guidance on implementing patient-initiated follow-up (PIFU) in adult rheumatology services is now available. For clinicians, service managers and commissioners the guidance will support the appropriate, safe and sustainable implementation and delivery of PIFU for people with rheumatological conditions who are under the care of adult rheumatology services. 

You can find the guidance on NHS England and NHS Improvement FutureNHS websites. If you are not already a member of FutureNHS platform, please visit the joingroup page to request access. You will be required to register for a FutureNHS account if you don’t already one.…

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Place-based partnerships report

The way NHS services are delivered is changing. Part of this is the development of place-based partnerships which will cover a geographical area smaller than an integrated care system (ICS). These will play a key role in integrating care and improving population health, which needs to happen more locally. The King’s Fund has produced a report on place-based partnerships to outline how this is happening and to provide local health and care leaders with a set of principles to support their approach to working at place.…

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Ride the wave

by Sue Brown, ARMA CEO

There’s been an optimistic feel to ARMA in the last week. A big part of this is down to our first ever virtual annual lecture. “Great lecture and discussion. As a patient I feel much more positive after listening to this!” said one person in the chat. Andrew Bennett opened the lecture with an update on the BestMSK Health Collaborative. This was followed by a wide ranging panel discussion on partnership with Public Health, Health Education and people living with MSK conditions.…

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