Patient Triggered Appointment System

Once your arthritis is controlled as much as is possible it is important that you can access our advice and services when you require them. All types of inflammatory arthritis can follow an unpredictable course and indeed this is one of the most frustrating aspects of having one of these conditions. People can go for long periods of time with good control and then the condition can flare up. Often there is an identifiable reason for this e.g. being unwell for other reasons but sometimes there is no obvious cause.

It is therefore important to be able to get the correct advice and treatment for episodes when you arthritis is troubling you more. For this reason once a stable period is reached rather than carrying on with routine appointments which may not be necessary we ask you to get in touch and make an appoint ent when you need to. We have called this ‘patient triggered return’ or PTR. Other names for it are patient initiated follow up (PIFU) and direct access or simply ‘open appointments’.

There is no need to ask your GP practice to get in contact with us on your behalf. You can telephone our appointments staff and request an appointment directly. This can be a telephone, video or face-to-face appointment, whichever you prefer. We aim to be able to offer you an appointment with in 6 weeks of you calling but we usually manage to provide one sooner e.g. in 2 to 3 weeks.

If the doctor or nurse that you have seen before is away you can be offered an appointment with another member of the medical or nursing team. If you prefer to wait to see a particular member of staff, this can be arranged for when they are available.

If you are unsure if you require an appointment you can either email or telephone us about your current problem and we can advise if this is necessary.

We hope that the PTR service provides advice and support from the rheumatology department when you need it and with minimum delay. If you have any comments about PTR (both positive and negative) then please do let us know. We welcome any feedback to help improve the service for our patients.

 

Published: 06/07/2022 14:47