RCC Health Policy Unit publishes new advice note on Navigating Consent
The RCC’s Health Policy Unit has today issued a new advice note to help chiropractors navigate consent in light of the landmark Montgomery ruling.
The Royal College of Chiropractors’ Chiropractic Practice Standards are evidence-based documents designed to help chiropractors meet their obligations in the provision of patient care and/or the governance of their services. For each area of practice, they:
The RCC’s new Chiropractic Practice Standard on Clinical Record Keeping, formally launched today, focuses on the principles and expected standards of clinical record keeping in a chiropractic care setting and aims to assist chiropractors to achieve those standards.
The Royal College of Chiropractors’ Chiropractic Practice Standards are evidence-based documents designed to help chiropractors meet their obligations in the provision of patient care and/or the governance of their services. For each area of practice, they:
This new Chiropractic Practice Standard focuses on the principles and expected standards of clinical record keeping in a chiropractic care setting and aims to assist chiropractors to achieve those standards. The RCC now wishes to consult on the content of the draft document.
The consultation is aimed, in particular, at the chiropractic profession, but the RCC is also keen to hear from other health professionals, health & care organisations, commissioners, patients and the public. It particularly wishes obtain views on the following questions:
The consultation document and response form are available here:
Clinical Record Keeping Consultation Document
Consultation Response Form
Deadline for receipt of responses: 5pm, Friday 19th May 2023
The consultation has now closed
The new CPiRLS Safer Practice Notices have now been published on our publications page. This includes:
CPiRLS Safer Practice Notice 001u2 Falls
CPiRLS Safer Practice Notice 002u2 Rib Fracture
CPiRLS Safer Practice Notice 003u Continuity of Care
CPiRLS Safer Practice Notice 004u Pelvic Girdle Pain
CPiRLS Safer Practice Notice 005u Syncope
CPiRLS Safer Practice Notice 006u Underlying Pathology
The Royal College of Chiropractors’ Chiropractic Practice Standards are a new series of evidence-based documents designed to help chiropractors meet their obligations in the provision of high quality patient care and/or in ensuring good governance of their services. The RCC’s first Chiropractic Practice Standard, which has been officially launched today, focuses on communication with patients.
The governments of England and Wales have withdrawn their final COVID-19 Infection Prevention and Controls (IPC) rules, namely the PPE requirement for face masks to be worn in healthcare settings, unless there is a known Covid infection risk. For Scotland, the use of face masks will continue in healthcare settings, although expectations are that this rule may be withdrawn in July. Face mask use is still encouraged in Northern Ireland.
The RCC is pleased to announce the publication of Outcomes for Chiropractic Graduates, a document that defines the knowledge, skills and competencies that are expected of newly qualified chiropractors in the UK. The document has been produced by the UK Forum of Chiropractic Deans (FCD), a group comprising the leaders of all the UK chiropractic programmes and the Royal College of Chiropractors.
Outcomes for Chiropractic Graduates is informed by the Musculoskeletal Core Capabilities Framework, and closely maps to the IFOMPT Educational Standards in Orthopaedic Manipulative Therapy. It is aligned with the GCC Code, and supplements the GCC Education Standards by defining the core of what chiropractic graduates need to know and be able to do at the point of graduation.
It is the FCD’s role to keep Outcomes for Chiropractic Graduates up to date in consultation with the profession and the General Chiropractic Council such that it reflects the current requirements of contemporary practice.
This consultation is now closed
HPU Bulletin: New Chiropractic Quality Standard for Headache
The Royal College of Chiropractors’ Health Policy Unit has announced the publication of a new quality standard which covers the chiropractic assessment and management of adult patients presenting with headache.
Headaches are one of the most common health complaints, with most people experiencing them at some point in their life. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that almost half of all adults worldwide will experience a headache in any given year. In the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017, headache disorders were the second most prevalent condition worldwide, as well as the second highest cause of years lost due to disability (YLD).
In the UK, migraine headache occurs in 15% of the adult population, with around 200,000 individual episodes estimated every day, resulting in high levels of disability and work absence, as well as having a significant impact on the wider economy. Episodic tension-type headaches affect 80% of people at some time, and are chronic (having more days with a headache than without one) in up to 3% of the population. Medication-overuse headache is the third most common cause of headache, affecting up to 2% of adults. Despite these figures, headache is under-estimated, under-diagnosed and under-treated, and remains a major public health concern.
Chiropractors regularly see patients that present with headache, often having not been seen by any other healthcare professional, and with no diagnosis having been made. Chiropractors have the skills and competencies to assess patients in order to diagnose most primary headaches, identify secondary headaches that require further investigation and, importantly, recognise the red flags that indicate a medical emergency.
As well as having a role in the management of some primary headaches and a few secondary headaches (in particular cervicogenic headaches), chiropractors also play an important public health role in providing support and advice to patients, signposting and making appropriate referrals.
There are a wide range of different patient presentations associated with headache and the management in each case will be different, requiring an individualised approach. The quality statements that comprise the new Headaches Quality Standard are therefore general but, nevertheless, provide aspirational but achievable markers of high-quality, cost effective patient care.
Given the chronic nature of many headaches, where appropriate, the Headaches Quality Standard should be read in conjunction with the chiropractic quality standards on “Chronic Pain” and “Supportive Self-Management in Chronic Care”, both also published by the Royal College of Chiropractors.
All the RCC’s Chiropractic Quality Standards are available for download here in full and abbreviated versions. Note that a separate copy of the Headache Assessment & Management Flowchart, which forms part of the full version of the Headaches Quality Standard, is available on the same webpage.
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
