Major cash boost to help North
East youngsters with arthritis
Youngsters in Newcastle and the North East who suffer from the crippling condition of arthritis are set to benefit from a major cash boost aimed at improving their care; and expanding research into the condition.
Medical research charity the Arthritis Research Campaign is pumping in almost £400,000 over the next five years to establish Newcastle as the leading academic paediatric rheumatology centre in the north of England.
The grant will fund the post of a senior lecturer in paediatric rheumatology, based at the Royal Victoria Infirmary and Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, who will play a major role in developing patient services, and encouraging collaboration between clinicians and scientists at the University of Newcastle.
The injection of cash has acted as a catalyst to boost the provision of NHS clinical services provided for children with arthritis, and will ensure that all youngsters receive the same standard of care - wherever they happen to live.
Tim Cawston, professor of rheumatology at the university, welcomed news of the latest tranche of funding from the ARC. The charity already funds arthritis research in the city of more than one and a half million pounds, following Professor Cawston's appointment in 1996.
"Newcastle is already well-known as a centre for child health, and this latest award will further establish the city as a leading centre for paediatric rheumatology," said Professor Cawston. "Having a full-time academic in post will allow us to target new areas that will ultimately result in improved patient care for children in the North East."
The new post-holder is to be Dr Helen Foster, a leading expert in childhood arthritis, who currently works as consultant adult and paediatric rheumatologist at the Freeman and Royal Victoria Hospitals - treating both adults and children. She will continue to see children with arthritis, while spending the rest of her time co-ordinating clinical research, alongside a new clinical co-ordinator funded by the Royal Victoria Infirmary.
"The new clinical co-ordinators - two nurse specialists on a job-share - have been in post three months now and are doing a fantastic job of improving the clinical services by working up patient support and education, and liasing with the community and schools, and helping with the clinical research," explained Dr Foster. "They will hopefully expand their role through out the north, including Cumbria, Northumberland, and Teesside."
Dr Foster has already established a network of clinicians - paediatricians and rheumatologists - in 13 hospitals in the region to ensure that children diagnosed with arthritis are seen immediately. "We are trying to standardise clinical care for the kids, so that they get the best care, wherever they live, which hasn't been the case in the past," added Dr Foster. "We also want to establish a parallel network of physiotherapists."
Newcastle is already one of only two supra-regional bone marrow transplant services for children with severe immunodeficiency, and in March last year Dr Foster and her colleague Dr Mario Albinun, a paediatric immunologist, became the first clinicians to carry out a successful stem cell transplantation on a ten-year-old boy with severe arthritis.
This rarely performed procedure, where the body's faulty immune system is replaced by a more effective one, is still at experimental stage. But so far the young patient has made a complete recovery, and no longer has need of any medication.
