MS Service Provision in the UK 2020: Raising the Bar

This virtual meeting will run over 3 days, starting at 17/18:00 GMT: 4, 10 & 11 November 2020

• Wednesday, 4 Nov: 5.00 – 8.30pm
• Tuesday, 10 Nov: 6.00 – 8.40pm
• Wednesday, 11 Nov: 6.00 – 8.45pm

This year's annual conference to discuss and share all things focussed on 'raising the bar for MS' will be fully virtual.

Much has been accomplished as we reach our third year of five in this national initiative to 'raise the bar' for MS, seeking to improve the experiences of those living with MS and the professionals supporting them. The past few months, however, have seen a necessary and significant shift in the work's scope and focus.

The coronavirus pandemic has affected our healthcare system, impacting the way we treat people already living with MS at a time when those treatments were already calling for a change to the way we do things.

Now, adding pre and rehabilitation, as well as responding to the neurological needs in some people who have contracted COVID-19, places further stress on already stretched neurological services.

The unsustainability of this situation, combined with new requirements for social settings demands new ways of working, new ways of consulting, treating and monitoring people with MS, and requires ever more flexibility, resilience, and willingness to change, learn and change again.

→ Poster session

Objectives:

1. Improve the quality of life for people with MS
2. Improve access to specialist services for people with MS
3. Improve outcomes for people with MS
4. Improve the efficiency of healthcare utilisation for MS services
5. Increase MS patient / MSer empowerment and activation

Background:

Postcode prescribing and other variances in MS Services were highlighted at our previous MS Academy meetings in Birmingham. At our previous meetings, we reviewed many of the underlying reasons for variation in MS services and put in place potential solutions. The data and audit workstreams have been our priority in year 1 and due to a large overlap in their activities, they have been merged. Progress and activities around ‘patients as partners’, the ‘social determinants of health’ and the ‘wellness & lifestyle’ workstreams will be reviewed.

The separate sub-committees will report back the results of their work and invite comment and further participation from other MS centres in the UK. Another output from the 2019 meeting was the setting-up and running of a leadership training programme. The good news is that the leadership course was funded and the first group of leaders will have graduated by the time of our 2020 ‘Raising the Bar’ meeting. As part of this leadership course, they will complete a national project the output of which will be presented at the meeting. Another important remit of the ‘Raising the Bar’ meeting is sharing best practice. We will also be asking some of our previous MS Academy winners to showcase their projects and to update us on how the MS Academy has changed their practice. We will also be expecting participating centres to present examples of service improvement projects that have made a difference in their centres at the meeting. Attendees will vote and the winner(s) will be given an opportunity to present their work at the meeting.

Steering committee

Prof Gavin Giovannoni, Dr Agne Straukiene, David Martin, Dr David Rog, Prof Jeremy Hobart, Joela Mathews, Karen Vernon, Phillip Anderson

Chair: Prof Gavin Giovannoni

Workstream leads:

• Audit and Data: Dr David Rog, Prof Jeremy Hobart & Joela Mathews
• Patients as Partners: George Pepper & Rob Sloan
• Healthy Lifestyle: Dr Agne Straukiene
• Social Determinants of Health: Prof Gavin Giovannoni, Dr Helen Ford & Dr Saúl Reyes

Who this meeting is for

This meeting is for everyone involved in MS care and services e.g. healthcare professionals, allied health professionals, researchers, commissioners, MS charity representatives etc.

Pharmaceutical company representatives must be from a company sponsoring the conference. A limited number of spaces will be available to those companies sponsoring the conference.

Costs

This meeting is fully funded.

CPD accreditation

'Virtual MS Service Provision in the UK 2020: Raising the Bar' has been approved by the Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom for 8 category 1 (external) CPD credit(s).

Extent of representation

If you have any queries, please contact Arthi Rajkumar at arthirajkumar@neurologyacademy.org to discuss.