1. Clinical Advice

Enquiries from GPs are welcome. A list of contact details for Dr Carroll including access phone numbers is available on request. Dr Carroll will provide an email clinical advice service at at an email address to be advised. This service is password protected. Please contact the practice for further details.

2. Guidelines for Shared Care of patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Increasingly the management of severe Rheumatoid Arthritis is becoming more complex. Since the latest treatments and those soon to be made available are extraordinarily powerful and most importantly as they have the capacity to substantially slow joint damage (see Fig. 1.) and thus result in far better outcomes, it is imperative that RA patients are evaluated fully at the earliest opportunity, so that their prognosis can be determined and appropriate decisions made in respect to treatment To ensure optimum care is delivered, an individualized Shared Care Plan will be developed for each patient. In this Shared Care Plan, the divisions of responsibility to be borne by the GP, the Rheumatologist at ArthroCare and the patient will be defined. Dr Carroll will issue a customized draft Shared Care Plan in writing for each new RA patient. The plan will be amended where necessary after all parties have had an opportunity to review it and satisfy themselves concerning the adequacy, suitability and practicality of the plan. A final written copy of the plan will be provided to patients for their records and in case they need to present it to any other health care practitioner.

Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Study
Sharp joint damage scores at 12 months
Figure 1.

3. Open Access Joint Procedures

An open access joint procedures service will be available. Patients requiring urgent care for diagnostic or therapeutic aspiration / injection or a therapeutic joint or soft tissue injection will be assessed and the procedure performed within 24 hrs or at the most within 48 hrs. This service will operate on similar lines to other open access sevices such as endoscopy. Patients will require a written referral. Referral pads are available on request or you may download the attached form and either fax or mail the completed form or give it to your patient to bring along. Should you require referral pads, please contact Annette on 9271 6306 or send her an email at secretary@arthrocare.com.au. Appointments may be made by phone, fax or eReferral. There will be scope within the referral to specify whether follow-up is to be by GP alone or shared. A single page report detailing the findings at the time of the procedure and indicating the nature of the aspirate, any investigations ordered and any injections performed, will be issued.