Templates for 21 of the most common rheumatological queries or conditions requested via Advice and Guidance (A&G) are now available in a collaboration between the British Society for Rheumatology (BSR) and Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) – helping to strengthen communication between primary and secondary care and reduce delays.
GIRFT’s new rheumatology toolkit reproduces resources originally developed by the BSR in 2023, adapting them to GIRFT’s colour-coded A&G template style, in keeping with the programme’s growing suite of A&G resources across key specialties.
The rheumatology toolkit offers templates for queries on conditions such as fibromyalgia, management of Raynaud’s, suspected early inflammatory arthritis and referral of patients at very high fracture risk osteoporosis, with the aim of reducing waiting times by enabling secondary care clinicians to provide primary care with faster, more streamlined access to Advice and Guidance (also known as Specialist Advice Services).
“This toolkit will support providers to implement best practice, easing pressures on Specialist Advice Services while ensuring that specialist advice requests receive responses that are timely and consistent in quality. We have worked closely with the BSR to ensure the responses remain consistent with BSR clinical information and content and that any future updates to BSR guidance will be reflected. We hope this toolkit empowers clinicians and operational managers to implement A&G in their trusts.”
As well as working with the BSR Clinical Affairs Committee, GIRFT also pulled together an expert working group from across primary and secondary care to develop the wider toolkit to ensure that the resources are helpful to both the specialists using them and the GPs making the requests and receiving the responses.
“Referral management tools like these Advice and Guidance templates, which are based on the BSR resources, play an important role in reducing waiting times by providing primary care with necessary access to specialist clinical advice, enabling care to be managed in the most appropriate setting, strengthening shared decision making and avoiding unnecessary outpatient activity. They can ensure that those people that really need a rheumatologist get to see us as quickly as possible.”
Since early 2024, GIRFT has been supporting outpatient transformation by developing A&G templates across a range of specialties, building on the rapid acceleration of remote consultation and telemedicine adopted during the pandemic.
GIRFT A&G template are also available for common conditions requested in urology, children and young people’s (CYP) conditions, dermatology, gastroenterology, and gynaecology.
