HIV Pharmacy

Introduction

The HIV pharmacy staff at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT) provide a comprehensive service to patients living with HIV within the outpatient and inpatient setting. This involves working as part of a multi-disciplinary team to deliver quality care to our patients, including running pharmacy clinics as independent prescribers for patients starting and switching HIV treatment, addressing patients adherence concerns, managing complex drug-drug interactions and leading a virtual clinic to discuss complex HIV treatment.

Programme aims

The programme is aimed at those who wish to extend their expertise in HIV pharmacy and who wish to learn more about GSTT’s HIV services. 

The training aims to enable visitors to:

• Experience our range of sub-speciality services including HIV / tuberculosis coinfection, HIV / hepatitis B and C coinfection, HIV antenatal, HIV metabolic, HIV neurocognitive, dietetic and young adult HIV services 
• Learn about the management of opportunistic infections and HIV related malignancies 
• Learn about the use of antiretroviral therapy and how to manage adverse treatment events 
• Experience tertiary level HIV in-patient care including access to HIV in-patient ward rounds, inpatient MDT meetings and the post admission clinic 
• Attend complex case meetings including the management of virological failure, drug resistance and ARV toxicities 
• Access our clinical trials team to gain insight into HIV trials and clinical trials governance 

Format

The programme will be based within the hospital environment where HIV services are provided. This will be both for inpatients and within the outpatient setting. Visitors will work alongside, and learn from, experienced specialist pharmacists who will ensure that all of their learning and development needs are met.

Who can apply

The HIV Pharmacy programme is intended for non-UK pharmacists with an interest in HIV. These pharmacists can apply for an observership programme.

Programme duration

We are able to offer visiting pharmacists an observership for a period of two to eight weeks. During this period the visitor will have the opportunity to observe and practice clinical pharmacy skills for people living with HIV.

HIV Pharmacy service

About the Harrison Wing

The Harrison Wing is situated within Guy’s Hospital and it provides specialist outpatient care and treatment for people living with HIV. The Harrison Wing team, which includes consultants, clinical nurse specialists, dietitians, pharmacists and physiotherapists, focus on the management of HIV infection and its associated problems and HIV treatments and they collaborate to provide all patient needs under one roof. The Harrison Wing provides a range of specialist clinics and support services which are available by appointment only after receiving a referral. These include:

• Women’s/family clinic
• Antenatal clinic
• Ophthalmology clinic
• Metabolic clinic
• Gastroenterology clinic
• Tuberculosis clinic for patients with co-infection
• Emergency clinic
• New-fill clinic for facial lipoatrophy
• HIV pharmacy clinics
• Young adult clinic
• HIV/kidney clinic
• Hepatitis co-infection clinic
• Treatment advice clinic

In addition to the clinics we also provide a home delivery service for our patients, which delivers prescribed medicine to a patient’s home or preferred address free of charges. This service is available for patients that have been stable on HIV medicines for the last three months, their HIV viral load has been suppressed for the last three months and they regularly attend appointments at the Harrison Wing.

About clinical pharmacy services

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust Pharmacy department is one of the largest in the UK and has a strong focus on individual patient care. Patients in the hospital environment need more specialised care due to their condition so pharmacists will often attend the bedside of patients in hospital ensuring the safety and effectiveness of medicines and consulting the patient with regards to issues they may have regarding concerns about medicines.

Patients are prioritised according to their pharmaceutical care needs with junior pharmacists undertaking tasks which focus on the safety of patients, mid-grade pharmacists focusing on the effectiveness of medicines use and senior pharmacists working in areas where the evidence for medicines use is conflicting or lacking.

The clinical pharmacy service provides a seven-days-a-week service to key specialities and is supported by the resident (onsite) pharmacy service, which acts as the first point of contact for the pharmaceutical care needs of patients out-of-hours.

Fees

A course fee per week will be applied; this fee excludes accommodation and travelling expenses. To find out the fee amount please email vpp@gstt.nhs.uk.

Please note

Clinicians are able to offer bursaries or discounted placements on an individual basis. This is at the discretion of the Directorates of GSTT and does not affect the terms and conditions of the Visiting Professional Programme agreements.