Counting the cost of rheumatoid arthritis

A report from the charity found that the costs to the UK economy of the disease, arising from productivity losses, total almost 8 billion - about 12 million per UK Parliamentary constituency. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic and disabling autoimmune disease, affecting about 690,000 people in the UK. It has no known cause or cure and many sufferers are forced to give up work.

A Public Accounts Committee report on services for people with rheumatoid arthritis highlighted significant variations in the spending on and quality of services for people with RA and other musculoskeletal conditions across the country. Yet, it also recommended that earlier diagnosis and treatment could not only limit the progression of the disease but also deliver significant savings for the NHS and wider economy.

“People with rheumatoid arthritis deserve to receive the care and treatment on the NHS and I commend the work of NRAS in highlighting the variations in spend and in the quality of service across the country. I will be enquiring of our Department of Health and local Health Trusts to find out what they are doing to tackle both the health and economic burden of rheumatoid arthritis,” Mr Dodds commented.