RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Accessibility and quality of secondary care rheumatology services for people with inflammatory arthritis: a regional survey
JF Clinical Medicine
JO Clin Med
FD Royal College of Physicians
SP 579
OP 584
DO 10.7861/clinmedicine.7-6-579
VO 7
IS 6
A1 RS Sandhu
A1 GJ Treharne
A1 EA Justice
A1 AC Jordan
A1 S Saravana
A1 K Obrenovic
A1 N Erb
A1 GD Kitas
A1 IF Rowe
YR 2007
UL http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/7/6/579.abstract
AB Secondary care rheumatology services for patients with inflammatory arthritis (IA) in the West Midlands were audited using Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance (ARMA) standards of care. Questionnaires were analysed from 1,715 patients in 11 rheumatology departments. ARMA standards recommend full multidisciplinary team assessment; referral rates to nurse specialists (52.3%), physiotherapists (48.7%) and occupational therapists (36.5%) were, however, lower than expected. Attendance at existing hospital-led education groups was rare (8.9%), awareness of existing helplines was moderate (59.2%) but the proportion of patients reporting satisfaction with advice about their disease was high (80.5%). Significant variations were found between departments. For patients with IA <2 years (n=236), 84.5% were seen by a rheumatologist within the ARMA standard of 12 weeks of referral; diagnosis of a type of IA was made at the first rheumatology appointment in 66.4%; 82.8% of rheumatoid arthritis patients had commenced disease-modifying drugs, although time to commencement varied across departments. This study raises issues regarding provision of rheumatology services, prioritisation of patient referral and patient education.