MSK Connect Update Nick Downing
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ND Nick Downing
Hi I’m Nick Downing, the Operations Manager for the Camden MSK service and I’m here to give you an update. MSK conditions affect one in five people and they’re a quarter of all GP consultations. Historically this has led to more than 1.5 million referrals going through to secondary care of which 60 to 70% do not require surgery. The aim of the service is therefore to support GPs in practice with MSK conditions and also to take some pressure off secondary care but making sure only the appropriate referrals go through.
The service is made up of two main parts: the CATS team is for the complex patients and consists of Extended Scope Physiotherapists, GPs in Special Interests and Consultants. Within Camden we’ve got a Rheumatologist, Foot and Ankle Specialist and a Sport Exercise Medicine Consultant. CATS referrals come through are on a referral form and the detail that you would provide is really important to help us make an appropriate decision about the onward care of that patient.
The other side of the service is the Physioline service whereby you’ll self refer your patients to us and a Chartered Physiotherapist will then call them back to take this objective history and make an appropriate decision about onward care. Very often patients will come into Physioline, come through and seeing Physiotherapy and having face to face sessions; if the patient doesn’t improve it will get escalated through to the CATS team and as necessary, on to secondary care, plus or minus, Diagnostics, injections or ultrasound guided injections as part of the CATS service.
A more recent addition to the service is the CPAMS service, the Community Pain Assessment and Management service. It’s for patients with MSK pain—so long term conditions that haven’t been managed effectively through previous MSK intervention. The service has been around for a year now and it’s based out of the South Camden Centre for Health and more details are available on the Camden GP website.
So if you have any questions about the Camden MSK service or the CPAMS service please get in touch. My details are on the Camden GP website underneath MSK. We will come out to your practise or we can arrange to speak as required.