12 August 2020
This summer, many members have alerted us to examples of new and urgent patients being unable to access rheumatology services in physical clinical space at their hospital sites. We also heard from rheumatology multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) finding innovative new ways to manage remote consultations in challenging settings.
We’re now supporting individual MDTs with a range of resources outlining why local Trust and local health board decision-makers must revisit any delays restarting rheumatology services.
This could include a letter from our CEO Ali Rivett to your Senior Management Team (SMT), localised data from our audit and partners, BSR policy and devolved nations support and clinical solutions such as our guide to restarting services. To access this support, please complete the short survey below.
We’ll then contact you to confirm details and listen to your concerns before we issue a letter from our CEO to your SMT. This letter includes an offer to meet with Ali and underlines the urgency in restarting rheumatology assessments for new patients by identifying enough clinic space at your workplace.
We have also written to all four nations’ Health Ministers to highlight the need to urgently restart rheumatology services with sufficient clinic space. We have secured a meeting with Northern Ireland’s Health Minister Robin Swann MLA and await responses from Jeane Freeman MSP, Matt Hancock MP and Vaughan Gething MS.
Complete the survey