Do You Suffer With Arthritic Knees?
Is it decreasing your walking distance, making gardening difficult, perhaps you’re feeling more housebound? You’ve tried walking aids and painkillers but they’re not working?
Perhaps you’ve been to the GP but they have been reluctant to commit to what the problem could be and won’t refer you to a specialist. Or perhaps they have put you on an NHS physiotherapy pathway to begin to address the problem, but it’s not working. Is it making it worse?
The problem is increasing pressures on the NHS.
GP’s may be reluctant to ‘label’ someone with a condition to refer them to a specialist, as this means incurring NHS cost. This can mean that less expensive, perhaps sometimes inappropriate, treatment paths are offered instead. These can often leave the patient prolonging the knee condition, and in some instances, making things worse.
Even after referral waiting times for an appointment with a specialist can be significant.
This means you’re left to deal with disturbed sleep pattern, limited mobility and possible secondary joint problems from your knee pain putting a strain on other joints. When you are seen, you may not be treated by a specialist knee consultant. They may not even be a doctor. Many patients are assessed by non-specialists for months until an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan is provided.
