Rheumatology

Our Rheumatology Service offers diagnosis and treatment to children and young people from Sheffield and across the UK with a wide range of rheumatic conditions and mechanical joint problems.

Rheumatic conditions are characterised by inflammation which is not caused by an infection. This can affect every part of the body, including the joints (arthritis) and eyes (uveitis).

The Rheumatology Team consists of consultants, nurse specialists and physiotherapists, plus a dedicated occupational therapist, pharmacist and psychologist. We are one of the UK’s largest paediatric rheumatology teams.

Rheumatology clinics

We offer general rheumatology clinics where we see a variety of conditions. In addition, we offer the following specific clinics:

• our clinic for adolescents is one of the few in the country providing a tailor-made service for teenagers and young adults – this leads into a local, dedicated young adult clinic for patients whose disease started in childhood
• we work closely with other specialty children’s services and run various multi-professional clinics, including our uveitis clinic for patients with eye inflammation
• Raynaud’s and Scleroderma clinic, in which patients and families have the opportunity to discuss with a pharmacist and meet representatives from the leading UK charity, Scleroderma & Raynaud’s UK
• fever/autoinflammatory in which we see patients with recurrent fevers

Treatments

Our treatments, including drugs and therapies, are state of the art and are provided by a team of trained children’s rheumatology specialists.

We participate in national research to further improve the treatments available.

Research

We believe children should have the opportunity to be involved in high quality research and clinical trials which help us to improve the care of our patients.

We are leading a variety of research work based in Sheffield and are participating in multiple national research projects.

Team mission statement

Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust has core values that underpin everything we do: Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence.

The Rheumatology team has developed a mission statement to reflect what we aim to achieve:

“Our team aims to provide an individualised, holistic service, seamless from childhood through transition into adulthood, committed to providing the best possible care, education and support for our children, young people and families. Integral to maximising the physical and psychological wellbeing of our patients, is engaging together in research to endeavour to offer care whilst pursuing answers for the future.”