Health Policy | ARMA

The Campaign for orthopaedics surgery ‘goes’ to Parliament

On Monday 23 November 2020 the campaign to prioritise extra capacity in orthopaedics surgery ‘went’ to Parliament in the form of a roundtable event. The virtual roundtable brought together a wider range of stakeholders including representatives of charities, surgeons, clinicians and industry to make the case in Parliament as to why orthopaedics should be a priority for the NHS over the next few years.

The event was hosted by Dr James Davies MP – a GP, member of the Health and Social Care Select Committee – and a Conservative MP for the Vale of Clwyd in North Wales.…

Read more of this article

Guest blog: A rollercoaster year in MSK

by Andrew Bennett, National Clinical Director for Musculoskeletal Conditions NHS England and NHS Improvement

It’s been a year since I was fortunate to attend the annual ARMA lecture at the canal museum in London and enjoyed a fantastic talk by Brendan Stubbs about physical activity and mental health. New to the role of National Clinical Director for MSK, this was the first time I met Sue Brown the CEO of ARMA, as well as number of other colleagues from the MSK world.…

Read more of this article

Understanding shielding – a briefing for clinicians

The information in this briefing is based on the collated experiences of many of those shielding and information from patient helplines about the enquiries they were receiving earlier this year. For more information about the experiences of people with MSK conditions during lockdown, please see the report ‘MSK Lived Experience Themes of What Matters.’

Earlier this year, over 2 million people including some with musculoskeletal conditions, received a letter advising them to “shield” by remaining in their homes for 12 weeks.…

Read more of this article

NHS Change Challenge Innovations

The NHS Change Challenge site continues to publish the most impactful initiatives submitted. Wave two included a number of digital initiatives and wave three will be related to rheumatology services. Each idea has a short slide deck explaining the change and how it was done, the impact and issues to consider for embedding it.

The information is brief and practical, enabling you to easily use the initiatives that are helpful to you. If you want to comment you can also join the discussion.…

Read more of this article

New Report on workforce challenges

The role of osteopaths as AHPs in the NHS

An independent panel of leading healthcare professionals, chaired by Professor Adrian Newland CBE, has authored a report including its findings on the role of osteopaths as Allied Health Professionals within the NHS, and their potential to provide much needed additional capacity to the delivery of NHS MSK services to improve patient care.

The report was launched at a virtual event with NHS commissioners, at which Sue Brown, CEO of ARMA, joined as part of the panel.…

Read more of this article

NICE behaviour change guideline published

NICE published its final guideline on behaviour change: digital and mobile health interventions on its website . You can also find the supporting evidence, tools and resources as well as all the stakeholder comments. NICE has produced an equality impact assessment to support the guideline.

NICE included the recommendations from this guideline in the NICE Pathway on behaviour change: digital and mobile health interventions, which brings together everything we have said on behaviour change: digital and mobile health interventions in an interactive flowchart.

Joint statement from professionals and patients on MSK services in the event of a second wave of Covid-19

With cases of Covid-19 rising and the prospect of increased pressure on hospitals this winter as a result, it will be unacceptable for the NHS to respond to this by treating only urgent and emergency cases in musculoskeletal (MSK) services.

As organisations representing patients and professionals, we recognise that this was a necessary response in spring of this year. However, it came at significant cost to patients’ physical and mental health, and the resulting suffering will continue for many months, perhaps years, to come.…

Read more of this article

Landmark parliamentary axial (SpA) debate

Landmark parliamentary debate highlights the NASS campaign for faster diagnosis time for thousands of people with axial (SpA)

On 17 September, a parliamentary debate on axial SpA (AS) was a landmark moment in the campaign to reduce diagnosis times and improve the care for thousands of people living with axial SpA (AS).

The debate was led by Tom Randall MP, who lives with axial SpA (AS) and shared with the House his personal experience of a delay to diagnosis, including being passed from one health care professional to another, before finally receiving the correct diagnosis.…

Read more of this article

NHS Change Challenge initiatives published

The NHS Change Challenge used crowdsourcing to identify almost 200 initiatives introduced during lockdown which proved beneficial. The project is now working to write these up in more detail so that we can publish them back onto the site for further comments and discussion. Due to the overwhelming responses received, the focus initially is on writing up the highest-scoring ideas based on impact and feasibility within each challenge area.

The first two ideas have been published on the site. Keep checking for further ideas which will be published over the next few weeks.

NICE: Chronic Primary Pain draft guideline

Consultation deadline 14 September 2020

A new draft guideline, Chronic pain in over 16s: assessment and management, published by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is open for consultation until 14 September 2020.

The consultation recommends that people over 16 should not be offered medication to manage chronic primary pain, including opioids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, benzodiazepines, local anaesthetic/corticosteroid combinations, paracetamol, ketamine and corticosteroids.

The draft guidance recommends the non-pharmacological management of chronic primary pain, including supervised exercise programmes and psychological therapies.…

Read more of this article