A nurse-led rheumatology telephone advice line: service redesign to improve efficiency and patient experience.

Background: nurse-led telephone advice line (TAL) services have been endorsed by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and provide patients and their carers with expert advice and self-management strategies. Identified helpline shortfalls in one rheumatology TAL included a high number of inappropriate calls, calls not recorded in patients' records, and no formal process for assigning calls to nurses. Using RCN guidelines, the service was redesigned by specialist rheumatology nurses to address these issues.

An audit of the standard of response letters sent by hospital specialists to general dental practitioners following a referred patient's first appointment.

Introduction: To assess the standard of response letters issued by dental hospital departments according to the requirements of the recipient dentists.

Patients And Methods: A cross-sectional survey from a UK dental hospital. All response letters issued from hospital departments between 1 January and 1 March 2003 were copied.