ESCAPE-pain has been awarded the ‘MSK Care Initiative of the Year’ at the HSJ Value Awards 2020.
The programme was awarded this prestigious award in recognition of its outstanding contribution to delivering better services and driving better outcomes across its organisation and delivery partners over the past 12 months.
The judges felt this this was an excellent initiative which enables self-management for people with hip and knee pain. Clear rationale was given for the initiative with supporting evidence and references, which has led to improvement in patient care. The team demonstrated great overall cost saving benefits to the system in terms of total and social health, and the overall ambition to improve general health, fitness and wellbeing was commendable.
This year’s judging process followed a different format due to the coronavirus pandemic. Finalists were asked to create a video presentation to submit for review by the judging panel, which is formed of a wide range of well-respected figures from across the UK healthcare community.
Read the HSJ’s project showcase document for the winners, highly commended and finalists in the ‘MSK Care Initiative of the Year’ category.
ESCAPE-pain stands for Enabling Self-management and Coping with Arthritic Pain using Exercise. The initiative, which has been running for 6.5 years, is an evidence-based and cost effective group rehabilitation programme for people with chronic joint pain. The programme integrates education, self-management, and coping strategies, with a personalised exercise regimen for each participant. The programme has been shown to reduce pain, improve physical function, improve quality of life and mental wellbeing, reduce healthcare utilisation, and is more cost-effective than usual care. The flexibility of ESCAPE-pain means it can be delivered in a variety of locations and by a range of professionals. The programmes have been successfully delivered in outpatient physiotherapy departments, leisure centres and local community settings by healthcare and exercise professionals.
On being awarded this accolade, Professor Michael Hurley from the Health Innovation Network comments, “We are absolutely delighted with this award. It means a great deal to us to have been judged to be the ‘MSK Care Initiative of the Year’, especially as there were so many great initiatives we were up against. The judges clearly were impressed with the general ethos of the programme about self-management, its effectiveness, and benefits that it brings to individuals and the healthcare system as a whole. We hope the award gives a boost to ESCAPE-pain that we believe can make a major contribution to the post-COVID NHS ‘reset’.”
He continues; “I really want to thank the MSK team based at the Health Innovation Network (HIN) for all their hard work and dedication. I am really proud to work with them. But also everyone who has contributed to the successful spread of ESCAPE-pain – the participants coming onto the programme, the facilitators who deliver the programme, the NHS, leisure and community partners who ‘took a punt’ with us and the programme, the HIN Directors, our Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) colleagues, Sport England, Versus Arthritis and many individuals who have given their time and consideration to support us. Without their time, effort, morale and financial support ESCAPE-pain could never be the success it has been.”
The editor of the Health Service Journal, Alastair McLellan, offered his congratulations to the teams on their success, “The entrants this year have been of incredible calibre, and each of the winners at the HSJ Value Awards 2020 have been chosen based on their outstanding commitment to delivering value and efficiency across their organisation, I’d like to offer my congratulations to ESCAPE-pain at the Health Innovation Network on winning the ‘MSK Care Initiative of the Year’ at this year’s HSJ Value Awards.”
Winners were announced on the HSJ Awards Twitter to their 7,000+ followers 4 September. You can view the tweets from across the day by visiting @HSJ_Awards on twitter or searching for #HSJValue.
Find more information on the HSJ Value Awards webpages.