The NOA Q1 (2019/20) meeting took place in Birmingham on Wednesday, 8 May, 2019. The meeting was opened by NOA Project Manager, Louise Napier who welcomed attendees and outlined plans for the day. NOA Deputy Director, Ann Hoey then led an introduction session, inviting attendees to answer the question: “If you could be shown an example of best practice in any area of orthopaedics, what would it be”?. This generated a lively discussion with lots of food for thought and suggestions for future NOA meetings and workshops. Members continued to share ideas around this question throughout the day via slido.
Guest speaker, Dr. Ian Bernstein – Clinical Lead for Musculoskeletal Services at NHS Ealing CCG covered the much anticipated topic of commissioning MSk services. Dr. Bernstein’s in depth presentation generated many questions, discussion and some debate among attendees.
After a short break, the NOA team provided updates on current projects and upcoming workshops including the clinical coding training day for non-clinical coders scheduled for 24 May, 2019. NOA Project Manager, Louise Napier gave an overview of the training and provided details of how members could register to attend. The day, designed to improve the accuracy and usefulness of coded data across the NOA membership is being run in collaboration with the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) clinical coding team.
An update on NOA’s CIP activity and plans for Model Hospital training followed led by Hannah Witty from NOA founder member, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) and Steph Wilson from the NOA project team. A recap of work to set up a National PROMs Network was given and next steps highlighted by Ann Hoey who invited members to sign up to the core groups set up to take the network to its next phase. A ‘show and tell’ of the new members’ area of the NOA website was led by Falon Paris-Caines, and members invited to register to gain access to it.
After a lunch break, Alicia Stanton and Marie Raftery from NOA founder member, the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital (ROH) gave an engaging presentation about the hospital’s new hip and knee replacement pathway, JointCare. The presentation was well received with lots of questions from attendees around the delivery of the program as well as successes and learnings identified by the presenters.
Paul Smith and Keira Tubridy from Barts Health then shared the Trust’s experience of improving their theatre efficiency. This was followed by an update on latest activity from the Greater Manchester Orthopaedic Alliance (GMOA) from David Sands Johnson.
Ann Hoey closed the meeting with an update on next steps for the review of the NOA quality standards followed by a round-up of the day. Ann emphasised that the NOA is member led and that input from members was key. She invited members to get in touch with the NOA team with any feedback.
The next NOA meeting will take place on Thursday, 1 August 2019. Please email info.noa@nhs.net to register your interest in attending.