NHS | ARMA - Part 2

NHS extends testing of non-urgent care waiting times target changes

If you are referred for specialist non-urgent treatment, you currently should expect to be treated within a maximum waiting time of 18 weeks. Over the last year, the NHS has been reviewing this 18-week target. ARMA has been involved in the advisory group looking at this change.

The NHS England board meeting on 30 January announced plans to extend the testing period for proposed changes to the 18-week elective care measure into 2020/21.

This joint response was issued by National Voices, The Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance, Versus Arthritis, the MS Society, the Neurological Alliance and Healthwatch England.…

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Guest blog: Social prescribing – connecting people with communities

by Simon Chapman, Deputy Director, Personalised Care Group, NHS England.

Twelve years ago I was working for a charity just north of Kings Cross. My office looked out on a derelict area of forgotten buildings and toxic land. Over the next 10 years, things gradually changed as the infrastructure was renewed: old buildings were renovated and new spaces and buildings were created for people and communities to visit, use and inhabit. Now, where there was wasteland, parents watch their children play in the Granary Square fountains.…

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How can we ensure general practice is fit for the future?

by Duleep Allirajah, Assistant Director of Policy and Campaigns, RCGP

As any patient who struggled to book a GP appointment will know only too well, general practice in the UK is under immense strain. Demand for appointments is rising and GPs are seeing more patients with complex needs. At the same time, practices are closing, workloads are reaching unsafe levels and burnt-out GPs are quitting the profession. That is why the Royal College of General Practitioners decided the time was right to publish Fit for the Future, our vision for the revitalisation of general practice.…

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Putting musculoskeletal conditions in the NHS health check at 40?

Following initial policy direction in the Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s green paper in July, on Friday 16 August the Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock announced an evidence-based review into the NHS Health Check service. Alongside suggestions that checks are personalised in future, the review will consider ‘increasing the range of advice the checks can offer – for example, prevention of musculoskeletal problems’. This is a brilliant opportunity to make sure that people are routinely asked about the health of their muscles, bones and joints at 40 years of age, and are provided with advice to support their musculoskeletal health.…

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Closing the workforce gap

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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Universal Personalised Care – a summary

Since the NHS Long Term Plan (LTP) was published on 7 January 2019, the Universal Personalised Care: Implementing the Comprehensive Model has been published.

The document defines personalised care: people have choice and control over the way their care is planned and delivered based on ‘what matters’ to them and their individual strengths, needs and preferences.

There are six components to the model:

Shared decision making
Personalised care and support planning
Enabling choice, including legal rights to choice
Social prescribing and community-based support
Supported self-management
Personal health budgets and integrated personal budgets.

…

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CEO update: The NHS Long-Term Plan – it’s what happens next that matters

by Sue Brown, CEO ARMA

The NHS Long-Term plan was published earlier this week. I was pleased to see quite a bit about musculoskeletal health throughout the document. There has been lots of immediate reaction, positive and negative. I think now is the time to focus on the positive, so here are my highlights.

The first reference to musculoskeletal health comes early on, (para 1.17) but seems to be mostly about frailty and older people. Great, I thought as I read this, but MSK isn’t just about older people.…

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ARMA Annual lecture: Dame Carol Black

Musculoskeletal conditions, disability and employment

Dame Carol Black is the outstanding expert advisor on health and work and principal of Newnham College Cambridge. Her lecture, delivered in London as part of the ARMA Annual Lecture series, was on progress to date by government, health professionals and employers on musculoskeletal conditions and their impact on employment and a person’s wellbeing.

The lecture and reception was well attended with an interesting Q&A session and lively twitter dialog using #MSKatWork.

You can watch the lecture on this page, where you can also find the accompanying slides for the presentation and photos from the event, or see the video directly via our YouTube channel.…

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Belimumab (Benlysta) approved for restricted use in NHS Scotland

On Monday 8^th May 2017 the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) published new advice accepting the restricted use of belimumab (Benlysta) by NHS Scotland for lupus patients. This advice was published following a re-submission with evidence supplied by GlaxoSmithKline (the producers of Benlysta) and LUPUS UK on behalf of patients.

Belimumab is the first drug approved to treat lupus in more than 50 years and is the first drug developed specifically for lupus since the disease was discovered. It is approved for adults with active, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE or lupus) who are receiving other lupus medicines.…

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Next Steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View

The Next Steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View document was published on March 31^st 2017 as an update to the original Five Year Forward View published in October 2014.

Next Steps sets out the NHS’ main national service improvement priorities over the next two years, “within the constraints of what is necessary to achieve financial balance across the health service”.

This blog post sets out why MSK is so important for the delivery of the next steps and the role ARMA and our members have to play.