This service aims to improve care of gout across NHS Lothian. The service will offer treatment advice to patients identified both in the community and in hospital.
We will contact patients who have started allopurinol in the community with information about gout treatment. We will also offer advice directly to the hospital teams looking after people known to have gout and who have been admitted to hospital.
Achieving control of urate levels is the key to reducing gout flares and can be achieved for most patients with the preventive medicine allopurinol. Information on the causes and treatment of gout is available on the Find out about gout page.
Research in Edinburgh has shown that supported self-monitoring of urate leads to much better outcomes for gout than the usual way of delivering care. With the support of the NHS Lothian Charity we will be inviting patients identified by the Gout Liaison Service to take part in trials of this approach. More information is available on the University of Edinburgh/Gout SMART page.
