Fit for Work Europe Annual Conference

Summary Report

A Fit for Work Coalition Summary November 2011

Fit for Work – a growing initiative

More than two hundred delegates from countries around the world attended the 3rd AnnualFit for Work Europe Conference, held at Royal Belgian Institute of Natural SciencesBrussels, and The European Parliament, Brussels.Welcoming delegates, Professor Steve Bevan of The Work Foundation and FoundingPresident, Fit for Work Europe Coalition, said that the third annual conference represented amilestone, marking Fit for Work’s move from relatively humble beginnings to a truly globalinitiative. “Work is good for health and wellbeing – it is healthy for patients and the widersociety. Work makes economic sense and should be promoted as a priority clinical outcomefor patients,” he said.The 2011 meeting brought together a broad coalition of European and national politicians,economists, and occupational health specialists, plus rheumatology, arthritis, and otherhealthcare experts to consider practical steps and solutions towards making musculoskeletaldiseases a public health and work priority at both EU and national levels.The primary focus of this year’s conference was the pressing need for National Action Plansto address muscle and joint pain in Europe – a problem which is currently costing workersand economies up to the €240 billion a year . Despite the soaring costs of this problem, fewcountries have plans or infrastructures to keep people in work.A keynote speaker at the European Parliament session of this year’s conference was LechWał

sa, former President of Poland, Nobel Peace Prize Winner 1983, and now the global Fitfor Work Ambassador. "We must fight internationally to improve the lives of those living - andworking - with pain. But only coordinated action at national level will keep workers wellenough to participate fully in society, including being able to stay in jobs they have workedhard to get," he said.

Figure 1

. Lech Wał

sa addresses delegates

"One hundred million Europeans suffer with a chronic MSD - over 40 million of whom areworkers - with up to 40% having to give up work due to their condition. This is unacceptablein the 21st century, when simple things such as earlier intervention and coordinated care atnational level can make such a difference to people living with MSDs,” he added.

Action plans

Effective policy and practice change at national level will only be the result of a unifiedevidence-based approach to the management of MSDs, delegates heard. Specifically,national MSD action plans must:

•

Make MSDs a national public health priority, along with other serious chronicconditions

•

Allocate adequate funding for early intervention and treatment of MSDs

•

Establish 'staying in work' as a valid clinical measure of successful management ofMSDs

•

Advocate including work productivity (i.e., societal costs) in health economic/healthtechnology assessments

Conference floor: Practical steps – Ireland and Spain show the way

Practical steps and solutions towards making MSDs a health and work priority at the nationaland EU levels were discussed by keynote speaker Professor Oliver FitzGerald, NationalQCCD Programme Lead for Rheumatology, Ireland. An important message from ProfessorFitzGerald’s talk was the importance of engaging the medical profession in attempts toimprove work retention.

Figure 2

. Dame Carol Black chairs the morning’s panel discussion

“We are encouraging our colleagues to think beyond physical symptoms, to encourage earlyintervention both for musculoskeletal pain and also for other conditions like inflammatoryarthritis, to promote self management, to support managers with job design interventions, tofocus on capacity and not incapacity, and we are emphasising to rheumatologist theimportance of communicating with all of the other stakeholders, including patients,employees, GPs, physiotherapists, employers and policymakers, the overall message thatwork is good for you and that we should try to maintain our patients in the workplace asmuch as possible,” he said.Professor Juan A. Jover, Rheumatology Service, Hospital Clínico San Carlos, Madrid, Spainshowed that national goals can be turned into clinical reality if bottlenecks preventing people