Rheumatology
Rheumatic diseases are common and osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most frequent causes of disease. They form a significant part of a doctor’s workload and lead to large annual health bills for doctors, drugs and hospital care. Approximately 15% of patients on an average of GP’s list have an arthritis-related condition and take up approximately 27% of consulting time. Many working days are lost each year because of arthritis and related conditions.
Rheumatic diseases affect people of all ages and both sexes, but some are more common in certain age groups and races, and in males or females.
Joint pain is a feature of most rheumatic diseases, but these disorders may present in different guises with other symptoms to a variety of specialist clinics ranging from dermatology to genitourinary medicine.