Changes for resuming routine T&O (May 2020 onwards)

Communication with patients on waiting lists

Update from 28th Sept 2020

The BOA has today published a statement regarding its viewpoint on communications with patients on waiting lists and those with upcoming procedures. To read the statement in full, please click here. 

Last week, the BOA also published a statement aimed at patients, to give them some further information about how the restart is happening and what they should expect whilst on the waiting list. This statement can be read here. 
 

BOA Congress 2020 content relating to Elective restart

Updated 28th September 2020

Two of our main BOA Congress sessions have focused on the impact on COVID and members can view the recordings of these on our website here. The sessions you may be interested in include: 'Elective Orthopaedic Restart after COVID-19' and 'T&O and COVID- the good, the bad and the future'.
 

Recovery of T&O Services

Update 27th July 2020 – NICE has published guidance on 'Arranging planned care in hospitals and diagnostic services', which covers NHS arrangements for patients needing elective surgery and other planned treatments and procedures (including diagnostics and imaging). There are some significant changes to practice regarding testing, self-isolation prior to surgery and also an emphasis on shared decision making. We have today removed our current BOA guidance on elective surgery in order to take account of this latest guidance. The full document is available here and a short one-page version is here.

BOA webinar (13th May 2020)

The BOA held a webinar, The Next Phase: Recovery of T&O Services, on 13th May with expert speakers providing their insights into the next steps, challenges and opportunities associated with resuming non-urgent T&O services in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. You can view the recording of the webinar below:

You can download a copy of the slides that accompany the webinar here. Please note these slides should be viewed in conjunction with the webinar and are not meant to be viewed as a separate resource.

Resuming surgical services (May 2020 onwards)

BOA update from 3rd July 2020

The BOA has issued a guidance update on Aerosol Generating Procedures (AGPs) and PPE. You can download the guidance document below:

BOA guidance: On 12th May 2020, the BOA published two guidance documents which look at a range of issues raised by the shift towards 'the next phase': one a shorter summary document that can be found here, and the second a longer document which has a more in depth discussion of the issues, found here. 

NHS England guidance: On 14th May 2020, NHS England published its 'Operating framework for urgent and planned services within hospitals' here.

BOA response to NHS England guidance: On 22nd May, the BOA published its response to the NHS England Operating framework, raising a number of areas for clarification and further consideration, and send a letter covering these issues to NHS England. Our response is available here. 

We will continue to keep this page updated for members in this rapidly evolving situation.

NB We have a separate webpage available which lists all the guidance documents available regarding coronavirus in the T&O specialty and subspecialties here.