Improving the quality of care for patients with long-term conditions is a priority at national and local levels in the NHS. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic, progressive and disabling autoimmune condition that affects around 420,000 people in the United Kingdom. RA is associated with substantial health, social and economic ... and This is a consultancy report by The King's Fund for the Rheumatology Futures Group, a consortium of the main patient, professional and pharmaceutical organisations involved in rheumatoid arthritis care.
The contents of this paper come from a review of the literature on compassion, or concepts related to it, and from views and comments arising from the workshop on this topic held in November 2008. The experiences of workshop members were collected on the day and by anonymous written contributions, ...