Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that primary care professionals are adequately trained to spot the early signs of rheumatoid arthritis.

The Royal College of General Practitioners’ (RCGP) curriculum statement, ‘Professional & Clinical Modules’, makes clear the importance of a prompt diagnosis and treatment of inflammatory arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

The condition is identified as a key area of clinical knowledge in the RCGP Advanced Knowledge Test (AKT) content guide. The AKT is a summative assessment of the knowledge base that underpins general practice in the United Kingdom within the context of the National Health Service and is a key part of GPs’ qualifying exams.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) Quality Standard ‘Rheumatoid arthritis in over 16s’, updated in July 2018, emphasises the need for early for urgent referral to a specialist rheumatologist on suspicion of rheumatoid arthritis within three weeks.