Services
The Rheumatology department is based at the Western General Hospital. The department comprises of 12 consultants, 6 registrars, 5 Rheumatology nurse practitioners, osteoporosis nurses, a physiotherapist, an occupational therapist, a podiatrist, secretaries and support staff.
Outpatient clinics are run at the Western General, St John’s and East Lothian community Hospitals.
All new patients will be seen face-to-face. We are using a combination of telephone and in-person appointments for return patients.
Appointments
We moved to a new return booking system in 2021.Patients will get their return appointment booked and notified 6 weeks before their scheduled follow up date.
We have an enormous return patient waiting list and at times the appointments may be delayed. If you have any concerns about your patient, please contact the patient’s consultant by email.
M.A & H.B/S.R 04-10-24
How to refer:
Sci Referral:
SCI Gateway Referral>Rheumatology>WGH: All referrals irrespective of location (East/West Lothian or Edinburgh) should be directed to Rheumatology at WGH where they will be triaged by the oncall consultant. The patients are then on a waiting list. Patient focused booking is used where waiting list New patients can book their appointment, including where they would like to be seen.
Please mark as routine or urgent with a clear history and clinical findings. This will make it easier for the on-call consultant to triage your referral appropriately.
It is not necessary to direct referrals to a specific consultant or clinic unless that consultant has seen the patient previously or it is a Bone or AxSpA referral. Please feel free to contact us if you wish to discuss the patient.
Emergency clinic:
Indications for an emergency appointment are: suspected GCA, acute severe inflammatory arthritis and patients who are clinically unwell with suspected systemic vasculitis or active SLE.
We operate emergency clinics supervised by the consultant on call on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays each week for patients that need seen urgently.
Referrals to this clinic should be made by contacting the registrar by phone.
Hospital Admissions:
We are unable to accept direct admissions to rheumatology as there is no dedicated rheumatology ward in operation at present. Patients will be admitted under general medicine and be seen by the rheumatology team.
If a patient needs admitted for emergency treatment this should be done through the acute medical receiving team (out of hours) or rheumatologist on-call during the day.
How to contact us:
Telephone:
Telephone advice is available from the on-call registrar between 13.00 and 18.00 weekdays and between 09.00 and 12.00 weekends and public holidays. The doctor on call can be contacted through the hospital switchboard (0131-537-1000).
GPs can also contact the Rheumatology on call consultant through the switch board
Email: Consultants are happy to provide email advice to GPs for patients under their care. All email addresses are available on the NHS Lothian intranet.
On-call email advice: rheumatology.oncall@luht.scot.nhs.uk
The email advice service is only for urgent on-call queries and is operational all through the week. We aim to respond to these emails within 24hrs of receipt.
Contact Us: Rheumatology (nhslothian.scot)
Consultants
Dr. Annamarie Horne
Secretary contact number: 0131 537 1806
Dr. Barbara Hauser
Secretary contact number: 0131 537 1798
Dr. Euan McRorie
Secretary contact number: 0131 537 2355
Dr. Helen Harris
Secretary contact number: 0131 537 1813/ 01506523824
Dr. Hema G Bhat
Secretary contact number: 0131 537 2355/ 01506523824
Dr. Janardhana Golla
Secretary contact number: 0131 537 1016/ 01506523824
Dr. Mohini Gray
Secretary contact number: 0131 537 3564
Dr. Neil McKay
Secretary contact number: 0131 537 1798/ 01506523824
Dr. Philip Riches
Secretary contact: 0131 537 1806/ 01620 642725/ 01620 642807
Dr. Stephen Boyle
Secretary contact number: 0131 537 3564/ 01506523824
Professor Stuart Ralston
Secretary contact number: 0131 537 1813
Dr Hoda ElMahrouki ( Locum)
Secretary contact number: 0131 537 1016
Useful Websites/Resources:
- www.EdRheum.org ( Lothain based website for patients giving information about disease and medications)
- https://www.versusarthritis.org (access to helpful patient information on rheumatological) conditions, and treatments available.
- British Society for Rheumatology www.rheumatology.org.uk
- Royal Osteoporosis Society: www.theros.org.uk
- Brittle Bone Society: https://www.brittlebone.org/
Shared Care Protocols and Guidance
There are a number of shared care protocols available for therapies used in the management of rheumatological conditions. Please go to Formulary | Lothian Joint Formulary (nhs.scot)
