Just looking for advice on behalf of my husband. He suffered food poisoning in 2012 (aged 27) and it triggered reactive arthritis. He was in a wheelchair for months, also had shingles a few months later so obviously some autoimmune issues. He is loads better now but sometimes has flare-ups. Usually he calls the hospital, sees the specialist and gets treatment to calm things down again. Anyway for about 6 months he's been suffering again with joint pain in his ankles this time. He always leaves it a while because sometimes it calms down on its own and he tries to manage it with rest etc. However it's getting worse and so he's called up rheumatology today to find out that the wait for an appointment is 2 years and that he might not even hear anything?! I realise it's not life threatening but he's now struggling to walk (he's otherwise fit and healthy and we have 2 toddlers to chase after).
What can we do? A private consultant is £250 let alone any treatment costs.