Home > Services > Specialist Medicine > Clinical Infection

On this page:

About Our Service

The Clinical Infection Unit (CIU) provides specialist care for adult patients with suspected or confirmed infections. As part of St George’s infection care group, we offer both inpatient and outpatient services with expertise in complex infectious diseases. We are also the commissioned specialist regional infectious diseases centre (SRIDC) for SW London and part of the larger UK wide SRIDC’s network.

Our Specialties

  • HIV-related infections
  • Tuberculosis (including multi-drug-resistant TB)
  • Invasive fungal infections
  • Travel medicine and imported infections
  • Fever of unknown origin
  • UK-acquired complex acute and chronic infections
  • Clinical microbiology diagnostics and advice

How to Refer Patients

  • Daytime: CIU Specialist registrar Bleep 7568 on consultant via St George’s switchboard
  • Out of hours: Via St George’s switchboard 020 8672 1255
  • Microbiology advice (*for St George’s Hospital patients and local GPs only please) via Microbiology duty consultant on 0208 725 5685 or consultant virologist on 0208 725 5686 9-5pm Monday to Friday and via St George’s switchboard.

*This is not for general SWLP advice – please call your local microbiology team.

Referrals accepted from GPs, Public Health England, other hospitals, A&E, and internal services.

Outpatient Referrals

  • Standard referrals: Use NHS e-Referral Service
  • Urgent non-emergency cases: Rapid Access Clinic (contact on-call SpR)

Patients typically seen within 2-4  weeks with  referrals are triaged daily.

Our Services

Inpatient Care

Location: McEntee Ward, St James Wing, 2nd Floor Phone: 020 8725 3147/3280

Our 18-bed McEntee Ward (St James Wing, 2nd Floor) is a purpose-built infectious diseases isolation facility designed to safely manage patients with complex infections. The ward features 12 single negative-pressure rooms and 2 specialized HEPA-filtered rooms for high-risk cases such as drug-resistant tuberculosis, making us a tertiary referral centre for these conditions. We provide comprehensive care for HIV, tuberculosis, and other serious infections, working closely with intensive care units when needed and managing patients throughout the hospital when isolation beds are at capacity.

Outpatient Clinics

Location: Clinic 3, Ground Floor, St James Wing

Referrals should be sent via NHS eRS .

If the referral is very urgent and the patient needs to be seen within 24-72 hours please use the urgent contact details below.

Specialist clinics include:

  • General infectious diseases (Tuesday afternoons and Wednesday mornings)
  • HIV (held at Courtyard Clinic) (daily)
  • Tuberculosis (Wednesday afternoons) – for urgent referrals please email StGeorgesTBServices@stgeorges.nhs.uk.
  • HIV/TB co-infection (Monday afternoons)
  • Daily rapid access clinic (Held on McEntee ward daily on weekday afternoons subject to staffing) for urgent reviews please call the CIU SPR on bleep 7568 to discuss.

OPAT Service (Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy)

We also operate the OPAT (Outpatient Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy) service, which enables early hospital discharge for medically stable patients requiring continued IV antibiotics. Inpatient referrals are made via iCLIP orders on Cerner, while external referrals from other hospitals or community services must first be discussed with the OPAT medical team.

The OPAT service provides comprehensive home-based antibiotic treatment through our partnership with community providers, including patient assessment, training for self-administration when appropriate, daily nursing visits, and ongoing medical monitoring. Patients remain under our care on the virtual Stephen Elek Ward throughout their treatment, with weekly reviews by the OPAT team and 24/7 access to specialist support, ensuring safe and effective treatment in familiar home surroundings.