Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance
Influencing policy and care together for best lifelong musculoskeletal health
NICE published its quality standard NICE Physical activity: encouraging activity in the community on the NICE website in June.
The NICE quality standards team have prepared a summary of the consultation report and the full set of consultation comments on its website.
Guest blog by Dr Jeanelle de Gruchy, President of the Association of Directors of Public Health
To its great credit, New Zealand has become the first country in the world to produce a “wellbeing budget” – a commitment to prioritise population wellbeing as the main mission of the government. A similar philosophy was adopted in Wales in 2015, with the Well-being of Future Generations Act requiring public bodies to think about the long-term impact of their policies on both people and places.…
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The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) has published a vision for general practice for 2030. It sees a very different place for general practice from the current model, with increased multidisciplinary working and a greater focus on prevention and well-being. This was developed with the involvement of patients, GPs and other stakeholders.
This is a response to the changing nature of health needs with more people presenting with complex and multiple conditions. The current primary care workforce is stretched and the numbers of GPs per 1,000 of population have declined by 5% in the last ten years.…
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Tuesday 25 June 2019 at 18:00 – 20:00
Join the RSA Health, Care and Wellbeing Network for a conversation about the integration of health systems and paradigms to support sustainable health, hosted by Paul Hitchcock FRSA.
This event will be an opportunity to explore how the two approaches might be mutually supportive in driving the sort of culture change that we need.
This is a participative event: after an introduction from Paul there will be time to discuss the issues raised, and time for informal networking as well.…
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For the first time since Public Health England (PHE) came into being, musculoskeletal conditions have been mentioned in the Government’s remit letter to PHE. PHE is the national body with responsibility for the nation’s health and wellbeing and tackling health inequalities. Each year the Government sends them a set of instructions about their priorities. In 2019/20 this specifically includes ‘work-focused musculoskeletal prevention activity’.
In 2018, PHE made musculoskeletal conditions one of its priority programmes, and so it’s great that these conditions are now taking their place on the national agenda.…
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The Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR) has developed free support resources for health, 
care and voluntary sector leaders who want to drive action through partnership working around the NHS Long Term Plan. The resources include online learning, webinars, workshops, coaching and individual support and are aimed at ICS/STP leads, commissioners, clinicians, and professionals from the voluntary sector.
The NHS Long Term Plan commits local healthcare systems to working in a new way, including a focus on prevention and reducing health inequalities.…
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The Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust PilotBy Dr Christopher Speers, Sport and Exercise Medicine Consultant Oxford University Hospitals Foundation Trust
Physical inactivity is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide1 and it contributes significantly to the worldwide burden of non-communicable disease2, 3. Hospitals, historically, have been dominated by a culture of rest4. Promoting rest contradicts the evidence which clearly demonstrates that disease outcomes are better for moving more and that post hospital syndrome, or hospital deconditioning, leads to increased risk and adverse outcomes5, 6.…
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ARMA has been working with the Medical Technology Group (MTG) to raise concerns about increasing rationing of joint replacement surgery.
The MTG is a coalition of patient groups, research charities and medical device manufacturers working to improve access to cost effective medical technologies for everyone who needs them. MTG has concerns about treatment rationing in general and have launched the Ration Watch campaign to highlight care inequality and the impact it has on patients’ lives.
Ration Watch aims to expose the scale of rationing and the issues around local commissioning across the UK.…
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The Health Foundation, Kings Fund and Nuffield Trust recently published a report Closing the Gap: key areas for action on the health and care workforce. The report looked at two areas – nursing and general practice, both very relevant to MSK health care. At the moment the future looks bleak, with 41,000 nursing vacancies in the NHS and another 5,000 in social care. There are 2,500 fewer GPs than are needed. The report, however, is optimistic that these shortfalls can be addressed, provided policy changes are made.…
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Last week saw a momentous event for people living with axial SpA (AS) in the UK, when NASS held the inaugural meeting of the first ever all-party parliamentary group (APPG) specifically for Axial Spondyloarthritis. Parliamentarians, policy makers, clinicians, healthcare commissioners and NASS members and staff came together to identify and address concerns about AS care.
You can read NASS CEO Dr Dale Webb’s reflections on the meeting and more of what’s to come from NASS’ Every Patient, Every Time campaign.
