HIV and hepatitis

Important Covid-19 information for people with HIV

Vaccines

Anyone with HIV is strongly recommended to have COVID vaccines in line with national guidelines. This includes having a Spring 2023 booster as long as it’s more than 6 months’ since your last vaccine.

You can book a vaccine here.
You can read more here.

Covid-19 treatment

There are new treatments available for people at home which reduce the risk of needing to be admitted to hospital. Treatment needs to be started within 5 days of getting symptoms and there are two ways to access it:

Panoramic Trial: ALL people with HIV are eligible

Routine NHS Treatment: People at higher risk of severe COVID (which includes some people with HIV) may be eligible for Covid-19 treatment

You can read about all of these options here.

London HIV services

Our free and confidential outpatient services offer treatment and care for people living with HIV in London.

We offer HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C care at Bloomsbury Clinic in London.

For more information about our services, including what to do if you want to transfer your care to us, please visit our clinic pages.

If you want to find out more information about HIV, visit the NAM website.

Bloomsbury Clinic, Mortimer Market Centre, London

London hepatitis information

We offer care for hepatitis B and C at the Bloomsbury Clinic in London. Please call 020 3317 5100 if you need to book a hepatitis clinic appointment. If you are a healthcare professional seeking advice or to make a referral click here.

More information to follow.

Surrey HIV services

Important information

We now have a dedicated phoneline for patients living with HIV. The new number is 01895 484948

Welcome to the Surrey HIV Service

The Surrey HIV Service provides outpatient care for people with HIV at Buryfields Clinic in Guildford and Earnsdale Clinic in Redhill.

Anybody living with HIV in the UK can access our service, regardless of where they live and you can transfer your care without a referral, just phone or email us (see contact details on this page)
We have a fantastic team that includes specialist doctors, nurses, psychologists and pharmacists

Please note, this service is for people living with HIV – if you need tests then please look at the 'Surrey contraception and STI care' section on this page.

I am a health care professional seeking advice or wanting to refer

For HIV referrals and non-urgent advice please contact us on:

hiv-referralsandadvice.cnwl@nhs.net

Important COVID information

Please visit this page to read the latest important information on Covid.

Appointments

We offer booked appointments, face to face and by phone, but our face to face capacity is less than usual due to ongoing COVID restrictions.

It is essential we have your correct contact details - if you may have updated your number since your last clinic visit please call 01895 484948 and press option 2 for HIV enquiries.
If you are due an appointment, or you wish to change your appointment time, please call 01895 484948 and press option 2 for HIV enquiries. If you receive medications via Boots or home delivery please ensure you have at least a month of medications left at the time of your appointment.
The majority of our appointments are face-to-face, if you have an agreed phone appointment please ensure you are in a comfortable and private place to maintain your confidentiality. We will aim to call you at the exact time but we may call up to 30 minutes either side. If we are unable to get through, we will send you a text asking you to re-book. It may not be possible to re-book with the same clinician depending on capacity.
Currently our appointments are 20 minutes long.

I want to transfer my care to the Surrey HIV Service

To transfer to our service:

Please call the Surrey Booking Office on 01895 484948 and press option 2 for HIV enquiries. Opening times are as follows:

Monday to Friday 9:30am to 1:00pm and 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Please note the booking office is closed in the afternoon on the first and third Wednesday of every month

- We will need your full name, date of birth, contact information and, ideally, GP details as well as other details including your ethnic group and sexuality
- One of our HIV team will contact you, ask permission to write to your previous clinic for information and arrange an appointment with a doctor or specialist nurse at a time that suits you. You can ask your previous clinic to send your information to us in advance to hiv-referralsandadvice.cnwl@nhs.net
- Please make sure you have an up to date list of any medications (including anything you buy over the counter, herbal remedies and vitamin/mineral supplements) when you have you doctor/nurse appointment.
- Please try to have at least 1 month of your medications left when you contact us – we can arrange an emergency supply if needed

If you want to transfer your care from our service:

Please call 01895 484948 and press option 2 for HIV enquiries. You will then be asked to leave your contact details which will then be passed onto one of the HIV team who will deal with your request.

Blood tests

Our blood service is back to normal but we may need to reduce access intermittently depending on COVID restrictions but will always have capacity to do essential tests.

Medications

Prior to your appointment please check how much medication you have left. Please discuss how you receive your medications with your clinician during your appointment.

Please make sure you have at least a 30-day supply of medication and contact us if you have less than this.

Home delivery / Boots – if you are already signed up please ensure you have least four weeks of medications at the time of your appointment.

If you are running low on medications please call 01895 484948 and press option 2 for HIV enquiries. We may be able to book you a phone appointment for the same day, otherwise we will organise an emergency supply to cover you until a phone appointment is available.

If someone needs to collect your medication from clinic for you they will need you name and date of birth.

Important information about switching from branded to generic (unbranded) HIV medication

When the license on a branded HIV drug expires, we often switch to the generic or unbranded medication which is usually significantly less expensive. We will do our best to inform you before your medication changes. Most drugs prescribed on the NHS are generic and contain medication identical to the branded versions.

During 2022 we will be undertaking the following switches but will talk to you about these first:

Evotaz (atazanavir + cobicistat in a single pill) to separate atazanavir plus either cobicistat or ritonavir (2 pills total). Evotaz is no longer being produced by its manufacturer
Rezolsta (darunavir + cobicistat in a single pill) to separate darunavir plus either cobicistat or ritonavir (2 pills total). Rezolsta will still be available for people who really need it but it will be a lot more expensive than the separate pills
Symtuza (tenofovir-AF, emtrictabine, darunavir + cobicistat in a single pill) to two or three pills. If you must be on a single pill Symtuza will still be available

If you have any questions about your treatment, speak to your doctor or specialist nurse.

Injectable treatments

From April 2022 the NHS will start providing injectable HIV treatments.

There are some important things to note:

The treatment will not be suitable for everybody – if you have any known or suspected resistance to the one of the two drugs, or you do not have an undetectable viral load, the treatment is not right for you
You will need to come to the clinic every 2 months for an injection into the muscle of each buttock – it is very important to attend on time (the injection can be given up to a maximum of 7 days before or after it is due) or there is a risk your viral load will go up and resistance to the drugs could develop
You will spend 30-60 minutes in clinic each time you have an injection
In clinical trials, about 1 in 70 people receiving the injectable treatment every 2 months developed a detectable viral load even though they had the injections on time, and most of those also developed resistance to one or both drugs
If you are interested in injectable treatment please speak to one of the team

STI screening and contraception

If you have no symptoms you can have a check for sexually transmitted infections when you attend for routine blood tests
If you have symptoms, have been a contact of someone with an STI or you want a check-up but are not due bloods then please look at the 'Surrey contraception and STI care' section on this page
We offer a wide range of contraception options

Emotional and wellbeing support

If you need emotional or wellbeing support from us please visit this page.

Domestic abuse

Scared of your ex or partner?

Domestic abuse can affect anyone.

You are not alone.

If you have concerns, please talk to us in the first instance or call National Domestic Abuse Helpline: 0808 2000 247.

Information about how we share your records

Bloomsbury, Earnsdale and Buryfields HIV Clinics, as part of Central and North West London (CNWL), partner with University College London Hospitals (UCLH) for many services including blood tests, prescriptions and, for London, X-rays/scans, inpatient admissions and specialist referrals.

Please note that medication prescribed by CNWL may be visible to other UCLH departments who are seeing you for medical care at UCLH (for example if you attend UCLH Accident and Emergency, UCLH outpatients or are admitted as an inpatient). This is an important safety check to prevent you being given medication that may interact with your HIV drugs. Your information will only be seen by those who need to see it and they will only be given access to the information required to provide the best possible care.

Your Bloomsbury/Buryfields/Earnsdale clinic record will not be visible or accessible outside of CNWL.

You can find out more about how your personal information is used by CNWL here:

How to contact the service if you are Deaf or hard of hearing

If you are Deaf or hard of hearing you may wish to use our dedicated texting facility to contact the service. Please contact us on 07801 629974. Please note we are unable to answer any clinical questions via this service. If you need to make an appointment please state this in your text. This number is monitored Monday to Friday between 10am to 3pm.