This site contains the South Australian Clinical Prioritisation Criteria (CPC) for most frequently referred rheumatology conditions.
Rheumatology conditions
Please note this is not an exhaustive list of all conditions for outpatient services and does not exclude consideration for referral unless specifically stipulated in the rheumatology exclusions section.
- Autoimmune Connective Tissue Disease
- Autoinflammatory Disease
- Autoinflammatory Disease
- Bone and Joint Pain
- Connective Tissue Disease and Vasculitis
- Fibromyalgia
- Giant Cell Arteritis
- Gout and Pseudogout
- Inflammatory Back Pain and Ankylosing Spondylitis
- Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
- Myositis
- Osteoarthritis
- Peripheral Spondylarthritis, Psoriatic and Reactive Arthritis
- Polyarthritis (Recent Onset)
- Polymyalgia Rheumatica
- Reactive Arthritis Lasting >1 Month
- Regional Soft Tissue Rheumatism
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Subacute Onset Single or Several Joint Arthritis
- Vasculitis
- Vasculitis
Out of scope
Not all medical conditions are covered by the CPC, as certain conditions may be considered out of scope or managed by other specialist services:
- Metabolic bone disease – refer to endocrine
- Chronic pain
- Chronic Non-cancer Pain in Adults - Community HealthPathways South Australia (log in required)
- Consider referral to pain management unit
- Hypermobility syndromes
- Children under 18 years with chronic pain (persisting for >3months) without evidence of arthritis should be referred to the Chronic Pain Service
- Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)/chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) – refer to general paediatrics
Exclusions for public specialist outpatient services
Not all rheumatology conditions are appropriate for referral into the South Australian public health system. The following are not routinely provided in a public specialist outpatient service:
- Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos without joint pain
- benign hypermobility syndrome without joint pain
- growing pain variants including:
- Osgood Schlatter’s
- Sindig Larsen - The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne - Osgood - Schlatter disease
- positive antinucelar antibody without signs or symptoms suggestive of autoimmune condition
- Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)/chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)
Emergency information
See the individual condition pages for more specific emergency information.
Feedback
We welcome requests for further information or feedback on the CPC and website, please refer to the relevant form below.
Please email the completed form to Health.CPC@sa.gov.au.
Review
The Rheumatology CPC is due for review in July 2026.
Evidence statement
For a copy of the evidence statement, please email Health.CPC@sa.gov.au.