Public Health England (PHE) pulishes regularly updated information for the public on the outbreak of coronavirus, including the current situation in the UK and information about the virus and its symptoms.
PHE has also produced helpful guidance for Primary Care.
The UK Healthcare Regulators have published this joint statement.
The RCC has opened a consultation on a new Headaches Quality Standard and are seeking the views of all stakeholders including interested organisations, chiropractors, other healthcare professionals, patients and the public. Comments are invited on any aspect of the document including its relevance and applicability to the chiropractic profession, the achievability of the standards described in the quality statements, the utility of the quality statements in terms of promoting best care, the document’s accuracy and validity in terms of the evidence base and the clarity of the content to practitioners, patients and other stakeholders.
Any comments must be submitted by the deadline of 12 noon on Monday 9th March 2020 using the comments form provided below. Comments will not be published but will inform the development of the final version of the quality standard which will be widely publicised.
The draft Headaches Quality Standard is available here
The comments form can be downloaded here
The Royal College of Chiropractors (RCC) was deeply concerned to learn of the death of Mr John Lawler, and our thoughts are with his family.
Chiropractic practice is regulated by the General Chiropractic Council (GCC) and, following the recent coroner’s inquest, it is now appropriate for the details of this sad event to be considered by the GCC’s Investigating Committee. We are confident that the GCC will consider the case swiftly and appropriately.
It is vital that the profession learns from this, and we intend to work with the GCC and the wider profession to help ensure that this is the case.
Deadline for nominations: Friday 29th November 2019
The Graham Heale Award was established in honour of the late Graham Heale FRCC and is funded by an award fund established from the many donations made by family, friends, patients and colleagues in his memory. The award is presented to the outstanding PRT candidate as selected by a panel of RCC Council members from nominations made by PRT Trainers and Regional Tutors.
Nominations are now sought from PRT Trainers and Regional Tutors for the 2019 award which will be presented at the Royal College of Chiropractors AGM/Winter Conference in London on Wednesday 29th January 2020.
Eligibility
The nominee and their Trainer must be available to attend the Awards Supper in London on Wednesday 29th January 2020.
Nominations
PRT Trainers and Tutors may nominate one or more individuals who meet the above eligibility criteria. For each nominee, a written case must be made explaining why the nominee is considered outstanding, and hence deserving of the award, with specific reference to one or more of the following:
To make your nomination please complete a nomination form, available here, and return it as an email attachment by the deadline of 12 noon on Friday 29th November to admin@rcc-uk.org
The Royal College of Chiropractors’ Health Policy Unit is pleased to announce the publication of a new quality standard which covers the chiropractic assessment and management of patients with osteoporosis and those at risk of osteoporotic fracture.
This quality standard is specific to the environment in which chiropractic care is provided; a setting that is often less constrained by time and resource limitations than other healthcare settings, and where the physical nature of some therapeutic interventions means that understanding a patient’s bone health is of particular importance. Patients present to chiropractors with a wide range of different complaints and (whether or not related to their presenting condition) the presence of osteoporosis, an osteoporotic fracture or major risk factors of osteoporosis should be a consideration.
Chiropractors have the skills and competencies to identify those patients with significant risk factors prior to the potential deterioration in bone density, and to provide early preventative support and advice. Fractures due to osteoporosis are a significant and growing public health concern and chiropractors are well-placed to identify those at risk, support them to make the necessary lifestyle and practical changes to help limit that risk, and to make appropriate referrals for further investigations and management. This embraces best practice in relation to the public health responsibilities of primary healthcare practitioners.
Vertebral fractures are the most common osteoporotic fracture although up to 70% do not come to medical attention and thus remain undiagnosed. Patients with these fractures often present to chiropractors with an increased kyphosis, loss of height and back pain. Given that vertebral fractures are a powerful predictor of further fracture, chiropractors have an important role to play in identifying and managing these patients, including making appropriate referrals, in an attempt to reduce the risk of further fractures.
Due to the prevalence of osteoporosis, increasing numbers of patients that present to chiropractors have already been diagnosed and are taking medications for the condition. Depending on the circumstances, chiropractors may have a multi-disciplinary role to play in co-managing these patients by providing conservative, non-pharmacological care, as well as communicating with the patient’s GP or other healthcare professionals.
Many different patient presentations are associated with osteoporosis, from those who simply have a number of positive risk factors to patients in severe pain having suffered a recent fracture, and the exact management will be different in each case. Therefore, the quality statements that make up the new quality standard are general but, nevertheless, provide achievable markers of high-quality, cost-effective patient care.
The RCC’s Chiropractic Quality Standard for Osteoporosis is available for download here in full and abbreviated versions. A separate copy of the Osteoporosis Assessment and Management Flowchart, which forms part of the full version of the document, is available on the same webpage.
Chiropractic & Manual Therapies gains an Impact Factor
The Royal College of Chiropractors is delighted to announce that the Royal College’s official journal, Chiropractic & Manual Therapies (CMT), has been included in the Science Citation Index – Expanded (SCIE), under the ‘Rehabilitation’ category. Journals in the SCIE are indexed in Web of Science and also receive an Impact Factor, which is a very significant measure of the high quality of the publication. Given that this decision was made very recently, CMT won’t get an Impact Factor with this year’s release of the Journal Citation Reports, but will receive it in June 2020,
This achievement means that CMT will be the first journal in the world with “chiropractic” in its title to attain an impact factor.
Professor Bruce Walker AM, Editor in Chief, stated that ‘this success is due to the collective efforts of a large group of people who have supported the journal over its long 29-year history. There are indeed too many to mention however, there are some very important contributors to the accomplishment. First, the staff of publishers BMC whose professional stewardship over 14 years has been outstanding, and members of the CMT editorial team, past and present. The editorial board has provided advocacy, reviews and advice regarding the journal that paved the way for success. Authors and peer reviewers are to be acknowledged as well’
Professor Walker went on to thank all who believed in the journal and to the many readers who have accessed articles. The journal is now truly established and, with continued support, will thrive in the coming years and decades.
Suspected neurological conditions: recognition and referral
NICE guideline [NG127]
Published this month, NICE Guideline NG127 covers the initial assessment of symptoms and signs that might indicate a neurological condition. It helps healthcare professionals working in primary and secondary care identify people who should be offered referral for specialist investigation.
The guideline, which gives recommendations for people aged 16 and over, as well as children and young people aged under 16, and includes a helpful interactive flowchart for a wide range of neurological conditions, will provide a useful evidence-based resource for chiropractors.
