The main role of the Directorate Pharmacist for Rheumatology is 'behind the scenes'. They help develop policies and guidelines around the use of medicines and help try to secure funding for individual patients who require specialist treatment outside of the normal treatment pathways. The pharmacist will answer any medicine related questions asked via the specialist nurses and doctors and are also present at some of the patient education groups run by the physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Occasionally the pharmacist may see patients in clinic who have specific medicine related issues.

The pharmacy department also plays a key role in the processing of the homecare prescriptions and setting up the homecare service for individual eligible patients. This is a fast growing service supplying hundreds of Rheumatology patients in the York and North Yorkshire area with their medication. For patients receiving infusions of medicines for their condition in hospital, these medicines are prepared in a state of the art sterile preparation facility within the pharmacy department on the York Hospital site.