Chair’s introduction
deliver significant savings, achieved through a process characterised by excellent communication. The whole of Arthritis Care was involved from the board of trustees, the chief executive and senior managers, to all our staff, volunteers and members. It was a process that paid off. Morale is still high and we feel a new determination to move forward in 2010.
In the midst of all this internal change it was important too that we did not lose our focus on key aspects of the external environment. We asked the chief executive to maximise his influence with health professionals and policy makers in this difficult period.
Around 10 million people in the UK have some form of arthritis and it is the commonest form of physical disability in the UK.
Yet arthritis is still too often brushed to one side. This is our main motivation in raising the profile of arthritis and Arthritis Care, and in 2009, a challenging year by anyone’s standards, we made real progress in this important part of our strategic plan.
External accreditation for three key areas of our work has underpinned our reputation and will assist our strategic goal of wishing to see more health professionals ‘prescribe’ us to their patients. We now have, for example, official quality assurances from the Information Standard and the Telephone Helplines Association, and the British Medical Association (BMA) commended the high quality of our information. All proof that our work is second to none.
As 2009 progressed, and the impact on our income and reserves of the deepest recession for many years became apparent, trustees responded to the challenge early and decisively. We charged the chief executive to
In Europe, where 100 million people are affected by arthritis, he was re-elected vice-president of EULAR (European League Against Rheumatism), an influential body made up of scientists, health professionals, and patient groups across Europe. In England, he was appointed to the position of Department of Health’s Patient and Public Adviser on Elective Care in 2009. In both these positions, he has been able to raise the profile of Arthritis Care and feed in the service user perspective at the highest level of policy and practice.
We entered a difficult year in January 2009. Nonetheless, our work continued. Our training courses continued to help people, our helplines team worked round the clock at times, our publications and website were more popular than ever. Looking back we are satisfied with our decisions as we negotiated a most difficult path through the year, decisions which we are confident have laid a firm foundation for the year ahead.
Rosemary Blair Chair, Arthritis Care
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