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. Despite an extremely tight deadline, ARMA and some of our members joined over 200 other organisations in making submissions. Lord Darzi was not asked to come up with policy recommendations, merely to set out the state of the NHS and the issues it faces. He pulled no punches. The report details the deteriorating state of the nation’s health, worsening situation in relation to the wider determinants, a catalogue of factors leading the to the current parlous state of the NHS, including chronic under investment. Nothing I didn’t know, but good to see it all set out in one report and summarised in a letter to the Prime Minister. Here’s the situation Prime Minister – over to you.
The next step is for the Government to act, developing a response to drive change, including the new long term plan for the NHS. The report emphasises the importance of MSK for the economy, including the facts about increasing incidence of MSK conditions especially amongst younger people (age 16 – 35). It also sets out some of the solutions which, whilst not being MSK specific, will help to address this MSK need.
Increasing the proportion of NHS spend on community services and prevention is important. Effective community services are needed to support people to manage their long term MSK conditions. The report also states that the patient voice is not loud enough and too many staff are disengaged. This needs to be addressed. As does the chronic under funding.
I was also interested to read that across ICBs, there are differing understanding of their roles and responsibilities, including how far they are responsible for the performance management of providers. ARMA’s response to the investigation included the findings of our FOI request to ICBs showing a widely varying level of priority given to MSK services, which they are responsible for commissioning.
The message from government seems to be no more money without reform. I take that to mean that more money will be available – for the right things. In which case I welcome it. ARMA’s response to the report was clear: Government had the courage to commission this independent investigation into the state of the NHS. It must now have the courage to act on the findings in their entirety.