Working with Parliamentarians & the Department of Health

NRAS works very closely with Parliamentarians across all political parties in each country and with the civil servants in the Department of Health to raise awareness of RA and the need for greater prioritisation to secure equitable services across the country.

We achieve this by:

• One to one meetings with the politicians
• We contribute to public consultations from the DoH and other special authorities align to the DoH
• We enlist the support of the Parliamentarians by asking them to submit Parliamentarian questions to their Health Ministers and Health Officials

Parliamentary Friends of NRAS

For five years NRAS ran the All-Party Parliamentary Inflammatory Arthritis Group (APPIAG) in the UK Parliament.  From 2010 we took the decision to convert members of the group into 'The Parliamentary Friends of NRAS'.  We now have nearly 130 Parliamentary Friends, who help us table questions in Parliament and hold Government to account.  Parliamentary Friends also play an important role in asking questions about their local NHS organisations.

We continue to look for ways to expand the group and are currently planning to launch similar inititiatives in the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and the Northern Ireland Assembly in the near future.