Rheumatology

We treat the following conditions:

• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Psoriatic arthritis
• Ankylosing spondylitis
• Osteoporosis
• SLE (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus)
• Connective tissue diseases
• Temporal arteritis
• Polymyalgia rheumatica

To make sure you have the best quality of care, our expert team of consultants, specialist nurses and support staff will need to see you as early as possible. It is important to make an appointment with your GP as soon as you start to see or feel a difference in your joints.

If we can diagnose your joint condition early, we can start treatment as soon as possible and give you the best possible chance of improving your condition. Treatment and ongoing support services will also help you to manage your condition.

Common procedures and interventions

After your GP refers you to the Trust our team will diagnose and treat your joint condition.

Common procedures and interventions include:

• Physical examination
• X-ray
• Laboratory tests
• Drug treatments
• Soft tissue and joint injections
• Musculoskeletal ultrasound

Keeping active is also an important part of looking after your physical and mental health when living with rheumatology conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. Our ‘living well with us’ information pages provide some useful suggestions on keeping active to keep joints supple, reduce your pain and to strengthen muscles and bones.

What do I do when I arrive for my appointment?

When you arrive for your appointment you should go to the reception desk to let them know you have arrived and they will direct you to the right area.

You may also have the opportunity to use one of our self check in kiosks as a convenient alternative to waiting for one of our reception team. You can do this by entering your details in to the kiosk and checking in.

Helpline contact numbers

If you have any problems or worries, please do not hesitate to phone our direct helpline.

We will make an appointment to see you at one of our clinics to make sure your treatment is working for you.

Please note that we do not offer a drop-in service for further support. Please use the helplines below to make an appointment.

We Make Every Contact Count

We understand that lots of different factors have an impact on our health and wellbeing – the physical environment in which we live, our homes, our jobs, our finances, our social networks, genetics, education and our behaviour (smoking, activity levels, our diet). It is important that we understand if there is anything else that we can do so support you to improve your health and wellbeing.

We encourage our staff to ‘make every contact count’ with you and that might mean that they ask you about your lifestyle – how much you move each day, if you smoke or even how well you are sleeping. We would encourage you to embrace those conversations and if you would like some further support to explore how you could start to make changes that could improve your lifestyle we will be here to help.

We have lots of useful information that our teams have pulled together in our Live Well section, that we hope you will find informative and useful.

Making a referral

You will be referred to our rheumatology team by your GP.

Health professionals should contact the department to make a referral.

Contact