
Called the Sussex Musculoskeletal (MSK) Partnership, the consortium is made up of: Brighton & Hove Integrated Care Service, a federation of doctors; charity Horder Healthcare; Sussex Community NHS Trust and the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
The new service, which launches in October, was drawn up by commissioners and locals to provide a joined-up service for patients with joint, bone and muscle pain. It will work on a ‘hub and spoke’ model with central hubs providing specialist treatment supported by smaller spoke facilities offering more standard treatments. The idea is that this will allow more patients to be treated closer to home.
Brighton & Hove, Crawley & Horsham and Mid Sussex clinical commissioning groups drew up and awarded the contract.
The consortium will be supported by other organisations as well. The National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society will provide advice and materials, the Medical Imaging Partnership will carry out the scans and x-rays, and Brighton &Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and Sussex & Surrey Healthcare NHS Trust will also provide care.
Further support for the project will also be provided by private providers Nuffield Health and Spire Healthcare, charities the Crawley Ethnic Minority Partnership and the Fed Centre for Independent Living, the Carers Centre for Brighton & Hove and the Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Sussex MSK Partnership will also bid for two other musculoskeletal contracts due to be procured by CCGs for East Sussex and coastal West Sussex.