Consultant Rheumatologist
There are satellite outpatient clinics at Montagu Hospital in Mexborough (which helps serve patients from the Dearne Valley region in particular) and Retford Hospital. Rheumatology inpatient facilities are shared with the Renal inpatients in Ward 32, away from the main medical and surgical wards.
There is a GP registrar (StR) and a Rheumatology Specialty Registrar who provide junior doctor cover. The Rheumatology Specialty Registrar may have general medical commitment, which is dependent on the stage of training. The GP registrar is shared between Rheumatology and Dermatology.
Day case Rheumatology takes place at Rheumatology Day Unit at DRI and Medical Day Unit at BDGH. Dedicated specialist physiotherapy and occupational therapy staff provide care for outpatients and also advise ward based therapists on care of Rheumatology inpatients.
The physiotherapists have a hydrotherapy pool for our patients based at DRI. There is sessional input from chiropody and specialist podiatry service. The hospital has a comprehensive orthotics service. There are six specialist nurses (4.2 WTE) across the Trust providing the appropriate dedicated input.
They run clinics for disease assessment / management, education, biological therapies, and osteoporosis service. The department at DRI has a computerised system (TAMONITOR), established in October 1999, for monitoring disease modifying drugs.
This is run, under medical supervision, by the specialist nurses with clerical support allowing safe and cost effective monitoring of the large and growing numbers of patients. There are recently updated and agreed shared care protocols in place with the CCG with regards to prescription and monitoring of DMARDs and immunosuppressives.
A telephone helpline run by specialist nurses provides further support for the patients. There are two DEXA scanners in the Trust, one at DRI and the other at BDGH. We provide clinical reports on DEXA results and they are currently reported by Dr Stevens, Dr Al-Khoffash and Dr Ramanath (Care of the Elderly consultant with special interest in osteoporosis).
The Trusts current metabolic bone and osteoporosis clinic is run at BDGH. However, due to the expanding need there is a plan to develop this service at DRI. There are very good working relationships with the nationally recognised Metabolic Bone Centre at the Northern General Hospital, Sheffield.
The successful appointee, if interested in osteoporosis, would be able to have their job plan reviewed to help develop the expected metabolic bone service at DRI. The department work closely with other related specialities and have established joint meetings/clinics: Combined obstetric-rheumatology clinic with Dr Yin (obstetrician) monthly Combined radiology-rheumatology meeting monthly Combined rheumatology-renal meeting every 2 months Combined rheumatology-respiratory meeting every 3 to 4 months In addition, we have established an early inflammatory arthritis service with a pathway which aims to meet NICE standards for assessment and treatment of inflammatory arthritis.
All consultants are involved in this service and patients in the pathway are pooled together. There is great teamwork within this service as all consultants review each others patients who are in this pathway. For the full details of the Job description and Person specification please see the attached documentation.