Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of arthritis patients receive their first treatment within three months of diagnosis.

The Department does not collect this data. Patients diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis should be referred for treatment at the earliest stage as set out in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence clinical guideline Rheumatoid arthritis: The management of rheumatoid arthritis in adults, published in 2009.