By Dr Irwin Lim, Rheumatologist
Saw a patient last week after an absence of 13 months.
Life apparently got busy and he "forgot". At least, that was the reason given.
He's on a disease modifying agent (a DMARD), which usually requires regular monitoring blood tests. He "forgot" these.
He didn't attend his GP either. So no regular monitoring of any sort.
He's now back because I wrote a recall letter reminding him of missed appointments and the need to be reviewed. His disease is actually relatively well controlled and thankfully, blood tests showed no organ damage.
This sort of scenario does happen from time to time. If the problem was me, I'd expect the patient to just ignore my reminder as they may be seeing some other rheumatologist or they may have decided not to be treated.
Can you help me understand this behaviour?
Dr Irwin Lim is a rheumatologist and a director of BJC Health. You should follow him on twitter here. Arthritis requires an integrated approach. We call this, Connected Care. Contact us.