Writing to Patients from Rheumatology / Patient interview and focus group study

Patient interview and focus group study

This study is about the letters rheumatology healthcare professionals write after an outpatient appointment. These are called clinic letters.

National guidance advises healthcare professionals to write these letters directly to patients, but not everyone does. Instead, some members of rheumatology teams write clinic letters to other healthcare professionals, for example, their patients’ GPs. A copy may also be sent to the patients.

We aim to develop a set of resources to encourage and support members of rheumatology teams to write directly to patients. To help us do this, we need to know more about the views and experiences of people who attend rheumatology outpatient appointments.

We are asking patients to take part in an interview (one-to-one conversation with a researcher) or focus group (a group conversation with one or two researchers and up to five other people who meet the inclusion criteria).

Interviews will last about 60 minutes and will take place online via video call (using the Zoom platform) or via telephone. Focus groups will last between 60 and 90 minutes and will take place online via video call (using the Zoom platform).

We want to hear from people who:

  • are currently a patient of an NHS/HSC rheumatology outpatient department in the UK;
  • are aged 18 or over;
  • have attended two or more NHS/HSC rheumatology outpatient clinic appointments in the UK;
  • can speak English;
  • have capacity (the ability) to provide consent to take part.

Learn more

Take part

If you are interested in taking part, we ask that you complete a screening survey. This will take about 5 minutes.

The screening survey includes questions to make sure you can take part and to help us ensure we invite a wide range of people.

Please complete the screening survey for the patient interview and focus group study:

Patient screening survey