Rheumatology (archived)

Rheumatology

The Rheumatology Department diagnoses and treats patients with conditions of joint, bone and muscle including:

Inflammatory arthritis (eg. Rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis).
Inflammatory back disease (eg ankylosing spondylitis).
Osteoporosis and bone health.
Connective tissue disease (eg. SLE, Sjogren’s, Scleroderma).

Service details

Most Rheumatology referrals are seen at Royal Surrey in Outpatients 4. Referrals may be seen in Haslemere Community Hospital, Cranleigh Village Community Hospital and Badgerswood Surgery. You may be invited at a later date to have investigations (such as MRIs, US, DEXA) before a diagnosis will be made.

Once diagnosed, you and your GP will receive a clinic letter. Your GP will be able to discuss your diagnosis with you and plan your treatment.

Who is eligible for the service?

We accept referrals from patients with:

New onset inflammatory arthritis.
Connective tissue disease.
Bone health problems.
Chronic inflammatory rheumatic disease.

We do not accept referrals for:

Hypermobility spectrum disorder.
Hypermobility Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
Fibromyalgia.
Chronic pain.
Osteoarthritis.

How to access the service?

We only accept referrals from GPs or other hospital doctors. All referrals are triaged by a consultant according to clinical urgency.

If your referral has been rejected, the admin team and secretaries will not reinstate it for you.

Contact us

Please contact the Appointment Centre on 01483 464002 or email rsc-tr.OPDApptCentre@nhs.net if you need to change the date of your appointment, or have not heard about an expected appointment.

Patients already in our care wishing to contact our consultants' secretaries should email rsch.rheummedsec@nhs.net. Emails from those unknown to the department will not receive a response.

Requests for high-cost drugs should email rsc-tr.RheumatologyDrugs@nhs.net. Who is requesting high cost drugs? Patients? GPs?

If you are an existing patient and want advice about drugs and inflammatory arthritis, please contact our Rheumatology CNS advice line telephone advice line. You can ring them on 01483 571122 and use the extension 4673 or email rsch.rheumatologynurse@nhs.net. Please do not contact the CNS team with issues other than inflammatory arthritis. They do not manage appointments and do not provide an emergency service.

When calling our teams, please leave a message with your phone number and email. We aim to respond to appropriate enquiries within 3 working days.