Your outpatient appointment with Rheumatology

Your appointment

The allocated appointment length is between 20 and 40 minutes; please allow the whole morning or afternoon in case you need tests.

Please bring:

• a list of your current medications
• details of any allergies
• specific questions that you would like to ask.

At your appointment you will see a Rheumatology specialist – this may be a Consultant, Registrar or Practitioner (nurse, physiotherapist or pharmacist). You may see more than one clinician, and there may be medical students present if you do not object.

When you arrive, we will take your height, weight and blood pressure (BP).

Please be prepared to give us a urine sample, and for the doctor to examine you - wear clothes you feel comfortable in.

Unfortunately, we are not always able to see you at your exact appointment time –please bear with us.

We will ask you about your:

• current symptoms
• past medical problems
• family medical problems
• current medications
• smoking, alcohol and lifestyle habits.

You may need:

• an injection into a joint or muscle
• blood tests
• an X-ray or other scan (the same day or later).

After your appointment

We don't routinely report normal results from blood tests and routine X-rays, but we will contact you about any investigations that need further action.

Following your initial assessment by the Rheumatology service you may not need any further assessments in our department.

If you do need a follow-up appointment, we will book one for you. We do our best to book follow-up appointments within the timeframe stated in your clinic letter, but we cannot always guarantee this.

Your appointment will be in one of the following formats, which we will confirm in your clinic letter.

Your appointment may not be at the exact time given, so please allow a 30-minute window on either side of the appointment time.

Follow-up appointment formats

Telephone

We will call you by telephone as close to your appointment time as possible. The call will come from an unrecognised number or a generic Gloucestershire Hospital telephone number – please do answer if you are expecting a telephone call from us.

Video

We will email you a link to book a video appointment via Attend Anywhere. You log on to the system and wait in a virtual waiting room until the clinician starts the consultation with you.

If it is not possible to conduct the video consultation for technical reasons we will contact you by telephone instead.

Face to face

We will assess you in person in one of our clinics. We aim to see you in a clinic most suited to your condition, and close to where you live if this is possible.