community health

Three horizons of MSK

by Sue Brown, CEO ARMA

I was reminded the other day of the three horizons model and thought how well this expresses the tensions we face in MSK. There is wide recognition that how we do things now doesn’t work for a whole host of reasons. It was this realisation that led Sussex MSK Partnership to try to do something radically different. They came up with community assessment days, which have excited a lot of people. While they experiment with this, they have had to continue delivering the service as it is currently arranged.…

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Of course we can

by Sue Brown, CEO ARMA

The majority of people with an MSK condition will rarely, if ever, need secondary care for that condition. All of them will need primary and community care. This is where people access MSK rehab, self-management support and a wide variety of treatment. Yet the main focus of the NHS remains hospitals. It’s what politicians talk about, what the media covers and where the majority of the attention of local systems focuses.

The King’s Fund has just published a report, Making Care Closer to Home a Reality, outlining why this problem occurs and some possible solutions.…

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New paper shows impact and value of community-based MSK care

A paper evaluating the effectiveness of the ESCAPE-pain programme delivered in community centres – “Community‐based care for people with chronic knee and hip pain: Preliminary clinical outcomes and healthcare utilisation for ESCAPE‐pain” – shows the positive impact of the programme on levels of participant activity. Before the programme, only 24% of participants were classified as ‘fairly active/active’ (doing more than 30 minutes of activity per week); after the programme, 78% were classified as ‘fairly active/active’; 6 months later, 69% were still ‘fairly active/active’.…

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Musculoskeletal orthopaedic approach to referral optimisation

NHS England has published Musculoskeletal orthopaedic approach to referral optimisation, a guidance document developed by the Outpatient Recovery and Transformation Programme (OPRT) and BestMSK Health Collaborative.

This guidance describes the benefits of referral optimisation in adult services managing musculoskeletal conditions, focusing on the use of specialist advice to enable people to be seen by the right person, at the right time and in the right place.

It makes the case for change to sustain high quality care, manage risk and optimise capacity across primary, community and secondary care MSK services.…

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Community-Powered MSK: ARMA Annual Lecture 2023

More and more of us are living with long-term MSK conditions, putting increasing pressure on our already over-stretched NHS and local services. Is the current model unsustainable? And what does the future of MSK care look like?

These were questions explored in the well-attended 2023 ARMA Annual Lecture. We were delighted to welcome two leading experts in their fields, Adam Lent, Chief Executive of New Local, and Laura Finucane, Consultant Physiotherapist and Clinical Director of Sussex MSK Partnership, who shared their insights with a lively audience.…

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Join a chorus of local voices for MSK

Integrated Care Boards have been in place for almost a year now. Over that year, we have seen the profile and status of MSK health rising at a national level. It is difficult to tell if that profile is reflected at an ICB level. If not, then all the national profile in the world won’t make a difference to people with MSK conditions. That’s why ARMA is making local MSK services a priority with a new project, and we need you to get involved.…

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ARMA Annual Lecture 2023

With a growing number of people affected by long-term MSK conditions, improving their quality of life has never been more important. Yet services are under increasing pressure, with lengthy backlogs, leaving many to believe our current models are unsustainable.

Could the solution lie in our local communities? That’s the topic of ARMA’s 2023 Annual Lecture, Community-Powered MSK, taking place virtually on Tuesday, 16 May 2023 at 6pm.

Adam Lent, Chief Executive of New Local, will join Laura Finucane, a Consultant Physiotherapist and Clinical Director of Sussex MSK Partnership, to explore innovative ways to tackle these issues.…

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Save the Date – ARMA lecture 2023

ARMA’s 2023 Annual Lecture, entitled Community Powered MSK, is set to take place on Tuesday, May 16th at 6pm. The event will be virtual and feature two distinguished speakers: Adam Lent, the Chief Executive of New Local, and Laura Finucane, a Consultant Physiotherapist and Clinical Director of Sussex MSK Partnership.

With a growing number of people suffering from long-term MSK conditions, there is increasing pressure on services and lengthy backlogs, leading many to believe that our current models are unsustainable.…

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ESCAPE-pain part of framework to reduce community MSK waits

In January 2023, NHS England published “an improvement framework to reduce community musculoskeletal waits while delivering best outcomes and experience”.

Integrated high quality community musculoskeletal (MSK) services are integral to a productive, high-performing healthcare system supporting the management of MSK conditions. Most people with MSK conditions can be diagnosed and well managed in the community through programmes like ESCAPE-pain.

A smaller number require timely referral to secondary care orthopaedic, rheumatology, spinal or pain management services to enable best outcomes.

Most community MSK services have a triage function to support diagnosis and optimise referrals, and/or a therapies function to rehabilitate those who have sustained an injury or are recovering from surgery, as well as to help people best manage long-term MSK conditions.…

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NRAS Leicester Mela Event

NRAS was proud to host the first Rheumatoid Arthritis Mela tailored for the South Asian community, which took place at Leicester Racecourse on the 13^th October 2022.

The event had a great representation of healthcare professionals and specialists from the South Asian community who kindly gave their time to share their expertise on the day.

The feedback from those attending found the event incredibly beneficial for their needs.

As with many events that are the first of their kind there has been some great learning that NRAS will take away, which will allow the organisation to better understand how to deliver these types of events for the community in the future.…

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