Stepping Hill Hospital’s rheumatology team has won a regional prize for improving the safety of treatment drugs.

The team won the Lennox Holt Prize, which is awarded to the best poster presentation on quality improvement in the field of rheumatology in the North West of England and North Wales.

The team, working with colleagues from primary care, were presenting their work into improving the safety of methotrexate, a treatment drug for arthritis and vasculitis, which is inflammation of the blood vessels. Other rheumatology departments in the North West are now also taking part in the quality improvement work.

The long term aim of the work is to reduce any harmful side effects of methotrexate for patients in the future, both at Stepping Hill Hospital and further afield.