Background: In recent years, there has been a move to deliver rheumatology clinics outside the traditional hospital setting, but there is insufficient information regarding its impact on standards of care delivered such as appropriate access to health professionals. At its inception in 2005, our department took over an existing cohort from a visiting consultant and has since delivered some clinics in a hospital setting, but the majority from a large PCT resource centre (currently >60% of doctor-led clinics and all Advanced Practitioner/Specialist nurse clinics including Biologics clinics). We aimed to audit the experience of inflammatory arthritis patients in our department with respect to published ARMA Standards of Care guidance. Methods: An adapted, scannable version of the ARMA inflammatory arthritis audit tool (patient questionnaire) was developed in house. 100 anonymized forms were printed and distributed to consecutive consenting patients identified by clinicians in rheumatology clinics. Returned forms were scanned using the SNAP software and retrieved data was summarized using descriptive statistics. Results: Of 92 responders, 90 were suitable for analysis (average age 74 years). 80% had rheumatoid arthritis, 7% psoriatic arthritis and 8% ankylosing spondylitis, with 80% having the disease for > 2yrs. Within first 6 months of diagnosis 81% reported seeing a Rheumatologist, 24% a Nurse Specialist, 13% an Advanced Practitioner, 19% a Podiatrist, 23% a Physiotherapist, 20% an Occupational Therapist. 86% reported being reviewed annually or more often by a Rheumatologist. Within first 6 months, 49% recollected being offered DMARDs, 47% an anti-inflammatory, 46% a pain killer, 32% steroid injections and 18% steroid tablets. 83% of patients felt that they had been involved in decisions about their treatment. Written information offered/given was reported by 53% about disease and treatments and by 37% about support organizations. 49% reported being offered information on exercise programmes in the department at initial diagnosis. Of 32 free text comments, 28 were positive, 2 neutral and 2 negative about aspects of current service. Conclusions: Patients seem to have had appropriate access to health professionals similar to a service delivered in a traditional hospital setting. Specifically, most were being reviewed by a rheumatologist annually or more often and most felt they were involved in decisions about their treatment. Several responders had the first diagnosis before the inception of our department, when there was a limited service in the district, reflected in the responses to questions pertaining to the first 6 months from diagnosis. The overall perception of current care delivered seems to be positive and this is probably no worse than a traditional service delivered from a hospital setting. We conclude that comprehensive patient-centred Rheumatology clinics can be effectively delivered outside the traditional hospital setting. Disclosure statement: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.