17 January 2022
NHS England and Improvement (NHSEI) has published its top priorities for the year ahead in its annual operational planning guidance.
Released last month, the document focuses on restoring services, meeting new care demands and reducing COVID-19 backlogs. It aims to significantly increase the number of people who can be diagnosed, treated and cared for "in a timely way".
The plan outlines four key actions, including:
- Accelerating plans to grow the substantive workforce and work differently
- Using pandemic learnings to adopt new models of care
- Working in partnership for effective use of resources across acute, community, primary and social care
- Increasing capacity and invest in buildings and equipment to support staff.
From a rheumatology perspective, musculoskeletal care is highlighted with a focus on using digital tools to "deliver radical improvements in quality and availability against national data requirements and clinical standards".
Ali Rivett, BSR CEO, said: "It's a difficult time for all our members who are facing the ongoing challenges due to the pandemic. We welcome this focus on musculoskeletal as it’s so often an overlooked area.
"The NHS’s approach to health inequalities, workforce challenges and patient-initiated follow-up all link closely with BSR’s existing activities. This national attention gives us a huge opportunity to drive forward the work of our members to influence best practice and improvements in quality of care."
In the coming months, BSR will publish three new NICE-accredited guidelines, continuing our valuable audit work and driving forward the recommendations in our NEIAA report on ethnicity.