Rheumatology

The Paediatric and Adolescent Rheumatology Service is provided by a multi-disciplinary team looking after children and young people with rheumatic disease across the West Midlands and beyond.

We see 650 new patients a year and reassure and manage many hundreds of patients, and their concerned parents, with non-inflammatory musculoskeletal conditions.

Conditions

We treat a range of conditions:

• Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA): We provide highly specialised care from diagnosis to holistic treatment including access to joint injections under general anaesthetic, with ultrasound guidance if required, followed by tailored physiotherapy and occupational therapy input. We offer the scope of drug treatments recommended for patients with arthritis
• Systemic lupus erythematosus
• Juvenile dermatomyositis
• Scleroderma and systemic sclerosis
• Vasculitides of all subtypes
• Behcet’s disease
• Autoinflammatory diseases (genetic periodic fever syndromes)

Clinics

We run combined clinics with the Behcet’s Centre for Excellence at Birmingham City Hospital, along with our own Dermatology, Endocrinology, Plastic and Hand Surgery, Genetics and Ophthalmology teams. We provide an out-reach clinic in Hereford and work in partnership with the Paediatric Rheumatology team at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire.

We have a dedicated adolescent rheumatology clinic that offers a transition programme involving a dedicated young people and families support worker.

Research

Our patients can access a wide range of paediatric rheumatology research projects. For more information on these projects ask your consultant or call 0121 333 8739/8743 to speak to our research coordinator.

Contact details

• Rheumatology department: 0121 333 8208
• Clinical nurse specialists: 0121 333 8219/8220
• Physiotherapist and occupational therapist: 0121 333 8218
• Research nurse/research co-ordinator: 0121 333 8739/8743