By Ann Hoey, NOA Programme Director Do you work for an NOA member organisation? Whether you’re an orthopaedic surgeon, wellbeing officer, researcher, inclusion manager, physiotherapist or any other professional who is passionate about orthopaedics, entering the NOA Excellence in Orthopaedics Awards, is a fantastic opportunity to recognise NOA member organisations, projects and teams that have distinguished themselves through exemplary contributions, influence, and commitment to transforming services across orthopaedics.  2023 will be the second year for the awards (look back at 2022 here ..read more

By: Sarkhell Radha and Irrum Afzal, Croydon University Hospital and NOA member organisation, the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre Provision and funding of healthcare in the United Kingdom is undergoing one of the most profound revolutions in the 74-year history of the National Health Service (NHS). Clinicians, healthcare professionals and managers are being presented with a series of organisational reforms that affect how care to their patients is delivered and funded. With demand in NHS hospitals outstripping capacity even before COVID-19, it is no surprise that the demand ..read more

By: Edward Bramley-Harker, Co-founder and Director at Edge Health, Tom Michaelis, Analyst at Edge Health and Christian Moroy, Co-founder and Associate Director at Edge Health Computers, sensors, data storage and new software to analyse data are everywhere and the NHS is no exception. The NHS collects more and better data than most other health systems in the world. In fact, the English department of health mandates that data is collected and submitted for all NHS commissioned activity. Over 5 million records[1], corresponding to 98-99% of all UK inpatient hospital activity are submitted ever ..read more

By: Irrum Afzal, South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre Having just attended the 2022 British Orthopaedic Association Annual Congress, it is now time for my colleagues and I to look forward to the National Orthopaedic Alliance (NOA) Annual Members’ Conference in October. The meeting will be talking place in the same stunning venue as last year, The Eastside Rooms in Birmingham. Having attended the first conference last year and several other NOA meetings, I am really looking forward to the event. Last year was a thought provoking and action-packed conference covering various areas of in ..read more

By: Mike Swanson, Business Relationship Manager, NEC Software Solution The success or failure of a registry isn’t determined solely by the data it was built to hold. The data must be complete and high quality, of course, but successful registries also keep their stakeholders fully engaged. Experience has shown that when stakeholders see clear value in the functions the registry performs, and the outputs it generates, they are motivated to ensure accurate and complete data gets submitted at every stage. Mandating collection isn’t enough Simply making data collection mandatory won’t work becaus ..read more

By: Ann Hoey, NOA Programme Director Anyone who attended NOA’s first Annual Members’ Conference last year will know that the day was an opportunity for member Trusts, patient representatives and NOA partners from across the country to share achievements, address shared challenges and discuss what’s in store for orthopaedics in the future. How time flies – now in the throes of arranging our 2nd conference, taking place on 19 October in Birmingham, excitement is high as I look at the impressive lineup of speakers we have secured so far. From the value of shared decision making to paediatric T ..read more

By: Alice Fabre, Director, Federation of Specialist Hospitals As the NHS prepares to delegate the majority of specialised services commisisoning to Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), specialist providers are faced with a radically different approach that comes with a range of opportunities and risks. Whilst the potential for increased integration across pathways may give patients with rare and complex conditions a more streamlined experience of care, the clarity of national commissioning will be replaced with a far more complex set of arrangements that might differ by service line as well as geo ..read more

By: Sarkhell Radha and Irrum Afzal, South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre The COVID-19 pandemic, a crisis that changed our lives almost overnight and forced the world to change the way they work at the speed of light has been a challenge as well as an opportunity for healthcare. Despite initial fears that pressure would be too great, the healthcare profession worked incredibly hard around the clock to provide on-going exceptional care by adapting to change and being resilient. Every country used different strategies to deal with the pandemic. However, the use of technology (WhatsApp ..read more

By: Irrum Afzal, Sarkhell Radha, Sulaiman Alazzawi, Vipin Asopa, Richard Field and Philip Mitchell, South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre Multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings in orthopaedic surgery are evolving. The goals of these meetings include patient optimisation, surgical planning and discharge arrangements on an individual patient basis. In line with British Hip Society, British Association Surgery of the Knee and GIRFT guidelines, the South West London region and parts of the Kent-Surrey-Sussex region set up a regional MDT meeting. Our model follows the ‘hub-and-spoke’ model ..read more

By: Anju Jaggi:  Consultant Physiotherapist/Deputy Director of AHP R&D Physiotherapy has always been a female dominated profession, however that hasn’t always resulted with women in the top roles such as team physios, academics or clinical leaders especially within the field of musculoskeletal health. I joined the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital 25 years ago in a culture of hierarchy, professional and gender stereotypes. However a select few broke that mould and these individuals encouraged a team spirit, mutual respect, nurtured and supported talent regardless of grade or profe ..read more