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We hope you find the information on these pages helpful. Our team is working tirelessly to provide up to date advice in relation to the COVID-19/Coronavirus pandemic. Record numbers of people are now turning to NASS for support, and we hope to be here for everyone. Our helpline and advice service are only possible thanks to donations from people like you.

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NASS Allies

NASS Allies is working with the Royal College of Chiropractors and Institute of Osteopathy to help reduce the 8.5 year delay to diagnosis.

GP Referral Template launched

At the Primary Care and Public Health Conference 2019, NASS was able to raise awareness of our brand new referral template which was developed in conjunction with the Royal College of Chiropractors and Institute of Osteopathy. It has been endorsed by the Royal College of GPs and the Chartered Society for Physiotherapy. The template is designed to help osteopaths and chiropractors to recommend referral into rheumatology via GPs more easily. The template is fully editable and comes with supporting documentation. In order to track the success of the template, we are asking osteopaths and chiropractors using the template to share their patients’ details with NASS (with their consent) so that we can follow their journey from referral through to diagnosis.

Download the template and additional document

Referral template

Referral Template by hand

Referral Template guidance for use

Patient Information

Patient consent form

 

Background

In a survey conducted by NASS, 68% of people had visited a chiropractor before a diagnosis of axial SpA (AS) and 60% had visited an osteopath before diagnosis. This clearly shows that chiropractors and osteopaths are on the front line in NASS’s bid to reduce the current delay to diagnosis.

An advisory board meeting was held in August 2017 involving NASS, Professor Karl Gaffney, Dr Raj Sengupta, Dr Jane Martindale (physiotherapist), Katie Griffiths of the Institute of Osteopathy (iO) and Jatinder Benepal of the Royal College of Chiropractors (RCC) and a new steering group was formed. NASS’s sincere thanks go to the Institute of Osteopathy and Royal College of Chiropractors for embracing this project and allowing the charity many opportunities to promote our work and axial SpA (AS) in general.

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