Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance

Features

Chain Of Trust

 

European Patients’ Forum

EU project co-financed by the EU Public Health Programme

                                                        

 

The European Patients’ Forum (EPF) is implementing, together with other six partners, an EU project co-financed by the EU Public Health Programme called “Chain of Trust”. Started in January 2011, this project aims to assess the perspectives of the main end users of telehealth services, i.e. patients, doctors, nurses and pharmacists across the EU to see whether and how views have evolved since the initial deployment of telehealth and what barriers there still are to building confidence in and acceptance of this innovative type of services.

For more information on Chain of Trust, please visit the project website at www.chainoftrust.eu or contact Liuska Sanna or Walter Atzori .

One of the tools that the Chain of Trust consortium is using in order to assess the views of patients and health professionals on telehealth is an online survey. This survey, which is available in 11 languages, is aimed at both users and non-users of telehealth services and consists of two questionnaires, one for patients and one for health professionals.

The online questionnaires can be accessed directly using the links listed below. Please choose survey language and type of survey you wish to participate (Patients or Health Professionals)

Click here:

Patients / Health professionals

 

Support

EPF will particularly value your support in dis-seminating this online survey across patient and health professional groups to help us reach out to as many respondents as possible. We would be very grateful, therefore, if you could dissemi-nate this survey across your members and con-tacts.

On behalf of the project consortium, we would like to thank you very much for your valuable input and for contributing towards a successful completion of the project!

 

The deadline for submitting the survey is Wednesday 20 July.
: Features, International

Arthritis Care : If I Were an Olympian…

 

The Arthritis Care creative writing competition 2011

For the fifth year, Arthritis Care is running its annual creative writing competition.

 

 

The competition aims to give people with arthritis the opportunity to write about their condition using a theme.
In 2011, the theme is If I Were an Olympian. We want people with arthritis to write about their arthritis using this theme. People might choose to focus their writing on accomplishments they have achieved, or goals they are working towards. Or even imagine themselves competing in the Olympic Stadium.

More Information…

For more details and for terms and conditions go to Arthritis Care.

Want to Enter….

Please send entries, of no more than 750 words, to Creative@arthritiscare.org.uk or to Creative Writing competition, Arthritis Care, 18 Stephen-son Way, London, NW1 2HD.

Closing date for entries is 29 July 2011 and winners will be announced on 5 September 2011.
: Archive, Features

Birmingham Arthritis Resource Centre RCN Award

Innovations in Rheumatology Rheumatoid Arthritis Award

CARE, which links hospital-based Rheumatology services with the Birmingham Arthritis Resource Centre won the Nursing Standard Nurse Award for Innovations in Rheumatology Arthritis Category.

The Collaborative South Asian Resource and Education (CARE) network in arthritis, which was developed by the Rheumatology Group at the University of Birmingham, has been awarded the Royal College of Nursing’s ‘Innovation in Rheumatology’ prize 2011.
 
 Picture left to right: Angela Rippon; Kanta Kumar, Chandrika Gordhan, Dame Christine Beasley; Suzanne Murphy
With volunteers and colleagues, the team established a rheumatoid arthritis service tailor-made for patients of south Asian origin. Local people were trained as patient educators, multilingual educational materials were developed and a helpline was established to help patients manage their conditions

 
The service was set up to deliver a tailor-made service for patients from the hospital to the community, with multi-lingual educational material and an Asian helpline to enable patients and carers to cope with the burden of chronic disease. It encourages people to seek early intervention for RA, and also supports research.
 

‘The CARE concept not only provides a great service to patients, it enhances compliance and addresses the important issue of getting patients to attend the clinic early enough to gain maximum benefit from the newer therapies for RA’ explains Professor Paul Bacon, of the School of Immunity and Infection at Birmingham, who was instrumental in setting up BARC.

‘It also provides a great platform for future research studies. We have already shown that individuals and local communities really appreciate the education we provide. Now we are poised to research the effects of this on how far this goes to really change patients’ attitudes and how to reinforce that to alter coping behaviour.’

‘The CARE network represents a fantastic example of collaboration between a University, the NHS, a charity and a City Council. BARC has been supported for many years by a team of volunteers who work tirelessly to support patients in Birmingham and beyond, and it’s wonderful for them that their work has been acknowledged with this prestigious award”

says Dr Karim Raza, of the University of Birmingham and Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, who has worked closely with Kanta Kumar, nurse specialist in Rheumatology, in developing key aspects of the CARE network.

 

: Features

Portsmouth: Day to Day – Living with Arthritis event

People from Portsmouth and the surrounding areas are invited to the third annual Day to Day – Living with Arthritis event, organised by Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust.

The event, at the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth on Wednesday 6 October, aims to inform and educate patients and the public about looking after themselves whilst living with any type of arthritis or connective tissue disease.

Love Your Bones is now in its 5th year, the event is an opportunity for members of the public to hear more about the impact of osteoporosis, how to adopt healthy life styles to promote bone health, treatment options and current research and how to live a full active life when osteoporosis is diagnosed.
 
Those attending the one day event will have the opportunity to meet local and national charities and services supporting people living with osteoporosis and to attend informative presentations on a wide variety of topics, all provided by experienced specialist consultants and health care professionals. It is also an opportunity for people to meet and share experiences.
 
The event will run from 9am until 4.30pm and has been organised in partnership with Portsmouth City PCT, Hampshire PCT, and ARMA- Portsmouth Local Network

Colin Beevor, Rheumatology Department Matron, one of the event’s organisers, said: “The annual event has been a great success in recent years and we hope this year’s will be no exception. We try to make the programme as varied as possible and we hope that everyone who comes will benefit and be able to get the help and support they need.”

Arthritis is a term used to describe a number of painful conditions of the joints and bones. Any part of your body can become inflamed or painful from arthritis and can affect anyone at any age. The two most common types of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Osteoarthritis, also known as degenerative joint disease, results from wear and tear. The pressure of gravity causes physical damage to the joints and surrounding tissues, leading to pain, tenderness, swelling and decreased function. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, potentially disabling disease which can cause joint pain, stiffness, swelling and loss of joint function.

Colin Beevor added: “By increasing public awareness, we can improve individual lifestyle and health choices which will enable people with arthritis to enjoy life to the full. I would like to encourage anyone living in Portsmouth and the surrounding areas who have arthritis to come to the event.”

Want to attend!

The event is free but places must be reserved by Wednesday 15 September.

To reserve a place email your name, address, contact details and how many spaces you would like to reserve, to

Val Robins at rheumatology.conference@porthosp.nhs.uk

or

send by post to Ms V Robins, Rheumatology, Department, Queen Alexandra Hospital, Cosham, PO6 3LY.

 

The conference is organised by the Department of Rheumatology at Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust in partnership with the Portsmouth National Osteoporosis Society and Portsmouth ARMA Local Network.

 
: Features

Integrated musculoskeletal service design by GP consortia

The Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance (ARMA) is concerned, however, that the direction of the quality standards in the NHS Outcome Framework will focus commissioners’ attention away from musculoskeletal conditions, ‘… if it isn’t measured, it won’t be managed’.

 
: Features, Policy

Policy

 

 

Health Policy
                     

 

Musculoskeletal Services Framework July 2006

In July 2006 the Department of Health launched the Musculoskeletal Services Framework. In July 2009 ARMA reviewed the implementation of the MSF in a document Joint Working?: An audit of the implementation of the Department of Health’s Musculoskeletal Services Framework.

 

Overview

The Musculoskeletal Services Framework demonstrates a new model of service to deliver better care, closer to home for the estimated 10 million people in the UK with bone and joint conditions. The Musculoskeletal Services Framework (‘MSF’) provides the NHS with new guidance to help improve services for people suffering from conditions such as arthritis,back pain and fractures. The Framework sets out how the NHS can use a wider range of health professionals including physiotherapists, nurses and pharmacists in addition to GPs and hospital consultants. By using more staff to treat patients – rather than just the traditional GP-consultant axis – patients will receive faster treatment, in a more convenient setting such as closer to home rather than in hospital. The framework is crucial to delivering the 18 week pathway  from GP referral as orthopaedic waiting times present currently one of the greatest challenges to meeting the target.

  • Musculoskeletal Services Framework  (pdf 2.36MB)
  • MSF Implementation Guide (pdf 663KB)
    A summary of the key recommendations of the MSF as well as further information to assist in its implementation.
  • MSF Summary  (pdf 43.8KB)
    A shorter summary to aid local implementation for developing a health economy-wide process, in conjunction wtih the MSF.
  • MSF Related Resources (pdf 68KB)
    A guide to websites and other resources to supplement the MSF and assist staff in accessing further specific information when developing musculoskeletal services.
  • MSF Patient Booklet  (pdf 899KB) 
    Information on bone and joint problems – getting the most from your local health services.

 

How will the Darzi Review affect YOU?

A year in the making, Health Minister Lord Darzi’s next stage review of the NHS is finally here. The culmination of the year-long next stage review came with the publication of his report “High Quality Care for All” and the accompanying workforce and primary and community care strategies.

While the past 10 years of NHS reform were designed to increase capacity, the next task is to increase quality and personalisation and give more power to clinicians and patients.

Darzi sets a new foundation for a health service that empowers staff and gives patients choice. It ensures that health care will be personalised and fair, include the most effective treatments within a safe system, and help patients to stay healthy.

The final report of Lord Darzi’s NHS Next Stage Review. It responds to the 10 SHA strategic visions and sets out a vision for an NHS with quality at its heart.
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