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Advice Line - 0117 34 24881

The advice line is for patients who are currently being treated under the adult rheumatology service at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston (UHBW) Bristol Royal Infirmary or South Bristol Community Hospital.

 

If you are a GP needing advice please use the advice and guidance service on ERS.

 

Patients who have questions/concerns regarding their Rheumatologic condition such as having a flare up of their symptoms, which are not responding to self-help remedies or are having side effects or problems with their Rheumatologic medications please see below.

 

We are sorry but we are unable to return calls to patients who have been referred to UHBW, but who have not yet been seen. 

 

The advice line is currently under enormous pressure so it would really help us if you check below who you should be calling before leaving any messages with us.

 

  • The advice line is not an emergency service. If you have general health concerns please contact your GP or 111. We aim to return calls that need Rheumatology nurse specialist advice within a couple of days. The advice line is an answer phone service. You will need to leave us a message on the voicemail system.
  • To change/cancel or check an appointment please call the Appointment Centre on 0117 34 26888.
  • For Osteoporosis queries, please call the Specialist Nurse on 0117 34 27402.
  • For queries regarding letters, the Rheumatology secretaries can be contacted on 0117 342 7266
  • Blood and tests results are not given out over the telephone. If you have had bloods taken at the BRI, most results will be added to your clinic letter. Alternatively contact your GP for results after waiting at least a week. Some results can take longer. For Scan and MRI results the doctor who requested these tests will write to you once the results have been reported on. Some results may take longer than others. Urgent results will be dealt with in a timely manner.

 

  • If you have recently started a new medication that we have prescribed at UHBW, we are only able to prescribe your first initial prescription. Your GP will then be responsible for prescribing this medication once they have received a letter from UHBW informing them that we have started you on it. The only exception to this, are medications that are called red drugs and can only be prescribed by the hospital such as biologics and Mycophenolate. 
  • If we have asked you to send us a copy of your blood results because you live in an area where we cannot access your blood results, please can email your results to:    rheumbloodresultsbri@uhbw.nhs.uk   Please remember to include your name, NHS Number or Hospital Trust number and date of birth.

 

If you feel after reading the above information that you still need to contact the advice line please see below information.

 

Our advice line is an answer phone service. It is not an emergency service. You can leave a message between 8am and 1pm Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays). Messages are retrieved Monday to Fridays (excluding Bank Holidays). 

 When you call to leave a message please speak slowly and clearly and please remember to include:

  1. Patient Name.
  2. Patient contact telephone number/s.
  3. Hospital Number / NHS Number. This can be found on any UHBW letter. NHS Number can be found on any NHS letter. This is formed of 10 digits.
  4. Your Date of Birth.
  5. Detail the reason for your call.  This will help us triage which calls to return first and if we are unable to contact you we can then send you some advice in a letter.
  6.  Please let us know if your phone automatically blocks calls where the number is withheld.

 Unfortunately if we do not have all of the above information, it may mean that we are unable to return your call.

 

Once we have recieved your message, we will call you up to three times in an attempt to return your call. When we call you it will show as a 'withheld number' or 'no caller ID'. 

 

Thank you for helping us to manage calls more effectively and support as many patients as we can.

 

Helpline number is 0117 34 24881

  

Fact:: Did you know with any long term health condition, health care and medicine are only a very small part of managing a disease. Life style and environmental factors have a far bigger part to play than medicine. We can help you take an active part in managing your condition with health advice such as healthy eating, weight loss, good sleep hygiene, stress management, pacing activities, exercise and getting out in nature or spending quality time with loved ones or friends. Run chores/errands more efficiently, listening to your body and reducing & stop smoking. 

 

Online Support

The following websites may also have the information you need to manage your condition or your query.

 

 

Refer to online guides such as Versus Arthritis and NRAS they also run helpline and NRAS has a buddying system for newly diagnosed patients

 

•   0800 5200 520 Call us for free information, help and advice on your type of arthritis.

•   Arthritis care www.arthritiscare.org.uk Freephone 0808 800 4050 email: helplines@arthritiscare.org.uk

•   NRAS  helpline@nras.org.uk Freephone Helpline: 0800 298 7650

•   Versus arthritisversusarthritis.org helpline 0800 5200 520

•   NASS National Axial Sponyloarthritis society nass.co.uk helpline and enquiries 020 8741 1515

•   Psoriatic Arthritis Alliance Papaa.org or nrshealthcare.co.uk or  www.grappanetwork.org

•   Sjogrens British Sjogrens Syndrome Association 0121 4781133 https://www.bssa.uk.net/

•   Lupus https://www.lupusuk.org.uk

•   SLE https://www.lupusuk.org.uk

•   Myositis https://www.lupusuk.org.uk

•   JIA https://www.lupusuk.org.uk

•   Vasculitis: https://www.vasculitis.org.uk Telephone: 01629 650549 or Helpline: 0300 365 0075 Vasculitis UK for information on Bechet's, vasculitis, GCA, Lupus for example

•   NHS choices 0845 4647 www.nhs.net