Many hospital patients diagnosed with gout are not being referred to the rheumatology department, leading to poorer outcomes on discharge, say WA specialists.

In a letter to the Internal Medicine Journal, the rheumatologists from the Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth describe how the outcomes of patients with gout at their hospital depend on whether or not the patient has seen a specialist.

Examining the case records of 100 consecutive patients who had a diagnosis of gout on discharge, they found that input from inpatient rheumatology was sought for just 32% of patients.

The remaining 68% did not have specialist input for their gout treatment.