BOA Latest News

NIHR Senior Investigator appointments

Each year, the NIHR invites applications into a round of open competition to decide who it awards the prestigious research roles to, based on individuals it feels can make the most significant impacts in patient and people-based research. The BOA would like to congratulate Professor Jonathan Rees, Professor Ashley Blom and Professor Andrew Carr on their appointments as NIHR Senior Investigators for 2021!

New BOASTs Published

The BOA Orthopaedic Committee has published its first elective BOAST: ‘Providing a Continuous Safe Elective Orthopaedic Environment’. This BOAST discusses the principles underlying our need for resources often called ‘Ring-fenced beds’ and highlights the standards we expect to deliver.

As this issue goes to print three new BOASTs - ‘Cervical spine clearance in the trauma patient’; ‘The Use of Intraoperative Tourniquets’ and ‘Paediatric forearm fractures’ – are ready for publication, so keep an eye out for these on our website, www.boa.ac.uk/boasts.

Recently Published Guidance

Peripheral nerve block follow up algorithm

RAUK, in collaboration with BOA, has developed an algorithm to guide the management of unexpected or persistent neurological symptoms after peripheral nerve blocks and surgery. To see the algorithm, please see the BOA website.

Centre for Perioperative Care Guideline published

The CPOC has recently published its Guideline for Perioperative Care for People with Diabetes Mellitus Undergoing Elective and Emergency Surgery. This can be found on their website: www.cpoc.org.uk.

BOA Virtual Courses

The BOA Training Orthopaedic Trainers (TOTs) course and the Training Orthopaedic Educational Trainers course are now running entirely online as Virtual TOTs (V-TOTs) and Virtual TOES (V-TOES). Both are facilitated by the BOA Educational Advisor Lisa Hadfield-Law.

• Training Orthopaedic Trainers (V-TOTs)

Much of the work for V-TOTs can be done at a time, place and pace convenient to participants, with attendance at live virtual meetings to supplement personal learning. Learning is monitored through learning logs with written feedback from expert faculty. The V-TOTs course will last for approximately six weeks.

• BOA Virtual Training Orthopaedic Education Supervisors (V-TOES)

V-TOES will be offered through two routes, and either you can join a small cohort on a paid-for course (‘Regular V-TOES’) or in many regions we have been holding a ‘regional V-TOES’ at the request of the TPD, (check with your TPD for more information).

If you are interested in either course, find out more at www.boa.ac.uk/v-tots or www.boa.ac.uk/v-toes.

BOA Virtual Ortho Update Course 2022 – Saturday 8th January

This one day course will give delegates the opportunity to access new understanding and support preparation for the FRCS exam. We will provide the facility for delegates to participate in Case Based Discussion (CBDs) online, across a range of critical condition topics, which are essential to their training, and join lectures delivered by expert clinicians.

Registration for this course will open in June!

Further information can be found on the BOA website, www.boa.ac.uk/OrthoUpdate.

Regional TOES update

Lisa Hadfield-Law and the BOA began in December 2019 delivering regional TOES (Training Orthopaedic Educational Supervisors) courses to support preparation for the new curriculum, initially face-to-face and virtually more recently. In total, we’ve successfully run 10 courses, with 369 participants; all fully subsidised by the BOA. Participants have provided valuable and positive feedback, and TPDs Alex Trompeter and Matt Solan from London South and KSS described this as “a hugely valuable experience” and found it beneficial to hold this as part of a regional meeting.

COVID-19 and BOA activities:

The BOA continues to be very active on a wide range of issues relating to and resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Key activities at the time of going to press in early May are as follows.

#BestMSKHealth programme

The NHS England BestMSKHealth programme was launched just as the previous (March 2021) JTO went to press and it is gathering momentum rapidly. Andrew Bennett, National Clinical Director for MSK at NHS England and NHS Improvement, is behind the initiative, which has 10 workstreams. The BOA is fully engaged across these workstreams, particularly those directly relevant to our work, such as ‘restoration and optimisation of orthopaedics’ and ‘falls, fragility fractures and osteoporosis’, and spinal and paediatric programmes. There is a strong emphasis on collaborative working across the health professionals caring for patients with musculoskeletal conditions, and linking up primary, community and secondary care.

Responding to growing waiting times

In March, the BJJ published major new research from Edinburgh University on EQ5D scores for those awaiting hip and knee surgery, which showed that a much higher proportion of people have a score below zero than pre-pandemic. The BOA, BASK and BHS prepared a joint response to highlight the significant issues of growing waiting times. We have also continued to monitor and report on the waiting times data published across the UK, and we are hoping to obtain more breakdowns, such as for paediatric orthopaedics where possible.

Guidance for members

The BOA and several specialist societies have recently finalised a position paper on ‘caring for patients awaiting surgery’, which focuses on reviewing and prioritising patients on the current waiting list. This is now available on our website at: www.boa.ac.uk/caring-forpatients-awaiting-surgery.

Webinars

The BOA and RCS Edinburgh held a joint webinar in April on ‘Recovery of Orthopaedics – challenges and opportunities’, chaired by Phil Turner, BOA Past President, and with presentations from Deborah Eastwood, Vice President Elect and Julia Trusler, Director of Policy and Programmes. A recording is now available to watch, and we have also posted online our answers to questions posed during the session where it hadn’t been possible to answer these on the night.

In May we held the latest in our ‘Coping with COVID’ series of webinars. This webinar focussed on ‘Managing recovery and supporting patients’ and a recording is available to watch on the BOA website at: www.boa.ac.uk/copingwithCOVID.