Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust: Proposed change to specialist infectious diseases inpatient care

Currently, patients with infectious diseases whose care requires a stay in a hospital may be admitted at Charing Cross, Hammersmith, and St Mary’s hospitals – For patients admitted to hospital with severe infections and fever requiring isolation the specialist infectious diseases inpatients service is currently provided in an eight-bed ward at Hammersmith Hospital.

The proposal suggests relocating the specialist inpatients service from Hammersmith Hospital to St Mary’s Hospital and maintain the current service at Charing Cross Hospital for admitted acute infectious diseases patients. St Mary’s Hospital provides urgent and emergency care through the A&E department, which is the main route of admission to the hospital for patients with infectious diseases. The move would improve patient experience by reducing ward moves and transfers of patients across our hospital sites.

The key benefits to be gained from the proposal are:

·         Better patient care

·         Higher quality of outcomes

·         Reduced ward moves and unwarranted cross-site transfers of patients

·         Enhanced patient experience

·         More staff training and professional development opportunities

·         Improved system effectiveness

The infectious diseases service would continue to provide in-reach services for patients being cared for by other departments at Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospitals, as well as maintaining outpatient services in their current format across all our three main sites. The eight specialist inpatient beds currently being used for infectious diseases inpatients at Hammersmith Hospital would be repurposed to other areas of patient care.

The Trust welcomes feedback throughout the engagement period from Monday 2 August until Friday 27 August 2021, especially from patients, carers and service user groups and other stakeholders to get a full range of views. Comments and questions can be submitted via email to: imperial.communications@nhs.net

Subject to the feedback the Trust receives on the proposal, it is expected that the timeframe would be for a decision to be made in September 2021.

For more information please read the proposal summary document on the Trust website.