Outcome of HIV-infected patients transferred to a specialist inpatient unit

The British HIV Association (BHIVA) recommends that specialist clinical networks are involved in care of HIV-positive patients admitted to district general hospitals (DGHs) and that transfer to a specialist HIV treatment centre is considered for each patient. We audited our experience of 29 patients transferred to our specialist inpatient unit over a two year period. Fifteen (52%) patients were known to be HIV-infected before admission to the referring hospital. Ten (71%) of 14 patients with newly diagnosed HIV had an opportunistic infection at transfer. At the referring hospital the time taken to diagnose HIV infection ranged from one to 26 days (median = 3.5). Only five patients (17%) were transferred by 72 hours of admission to the referring hospital. The duration of stay at our centre was 1-212 days (median = 15): seven patients (24%) required admission to the intensive care unit. Seven patients died; of these, three had newly diagnosed HIV infection. This audit demonstrates that sick HIV-infected patients transferred to a specialist HIV unit had a poor outcome and lengthy hospital admissions. Our audit supports roll-out of HIV testing to avoid adverse outcomes associated with late diagnosis and development of clinical networks involving specialist HIV treatment centres in order to support provision of HIV care in DGHs.