What is a rheumatologist for?
Josh Dixey, (Hon Secretary) and Andrew Bamji, (President) The British Society for Rheumatology, Bride House, 18 20 Bride Lane, London EC4Y 8EE, UK. Correspondence to: Debbie Smith. E-mail: dsmith{at}rheumatology.org.uk’ + u + ‘@’ + d + ”//–> Ask any individual rheumatologist, and I suspect that the answer will be clear. Collectively, however, our specialty includes the management of a diverse range of conditions ranging from life-threatening vasculitis, inflammatory arthritis and osteoporosis to soft tissue pain and chronic pain. In the UK, current dogma from the health commissioners dictates that much of this activity might be taken away from the specialty and given to other clinicians such as primary care doctors and nurse or physiotherapy practitioners on the grounds of cost saving. This change in emphasis is potentially a major threat to rheumatology as a specialty and the rheumatologist as an individual. This reflects the suggestion in a recent White Paper Our health, our care,
