Our clinics

Blood test only clinic

Blood test only clinics run daily from Monday to Friday for people living with HIV. Please note, this does not include bank holidays.

Dermatology clinic

People living with HIV may suffer from a range of skin complaints. At Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB), patients with skin complaints are referred to the dermatology outpatient clinic.

Patients are seen in consultant-led clinics with specialist registrars and other junior doctors.

A typical visit would involve taking a history/examination, and investigations including skin biopsy where necessary. Our nurses are trained to carry out certain procedures including diagnostic punch biopsies and cryotherapy.

Our aim is to develop a management plan for the patient at an early stage and discharge from the clinic where possible.

If you are concerned about any skin complaint you have, please discuss this with your doctor and, if indicated, a referral can be made.

Dietetic clinics

You can self-refer or can be referred via your consultant or by a member of the team to the dietitian’s clinic. Your dietitian will provide tailored care and support via telephone or face to face clinic which runs every day from Monday to Friday.

The dietitian will perform an active role in assessing, monitoring, and optimising your health through your attendance at regular clinics, including:

• HIV dietetics clinic (offered telephone/face to face)
• Annual health check clinic (therapy support worker led clinic- offered telephone/face to face)
• Our clinics are further supported by other specialist dietetics clinics that you can be referred into where appropriate.
• Specialist weight management clinic (based at Heartlands only)
• Gastroenterology clinic
• Renal clinic
• Diabetes clinic

Lipid clinic

All patients who have HIV see the dietician and are assessed as part of their dietetic session for their risk of potential heart problems. The reason for this is that patients with HIV are more likely to develop problems with their blood fat metabolism. The common blood fats assessed are cholesterol, which is a substance mostly made in your liver that has three functions. These are:

• as part of the cell wall of every cell in your body
• discharged from the liver into the gut to help in digestion
• used as the starter compound for many body hormones

The other major blood fat is triglyceride. Triglyceride reflects the amount of energy taken in by your diet and is influenced by the amount of fat, protein, sugar and alcohol that you take. Increased triglycerides are found where there is a lack of distribution of triglyceride round the body.

In assessing your risk for heart problems the blood fats are but one aspect of the assessment and other major points assessed include:

• your family history
• your gender
• your age
• your blood pressure
• your blood sugar levels
• cholesterol number
• HDL cholesterol number (this is good cholesterol)
• sugar level
• cardiographic tracing (where applicable)

If you are seen in the combined HIV/lipid clinic we:

• review in detail your family history
• check for any problems related to heart disease
• assess you clinically by examination (which can find cholesterol-related problems)
• after this assessment, discuss whether treatment is necessary and the options open to you

An initial assessment will take approximately 30 minutes and we would expect to see you two or three times more in the combined clinic to monitor your progress . When stable it is likely that we may wish to see you at annual intervals.

Outpatient clinics

Outpatient clinics are consultant led and take place from Monday to Friday.

Mental Health Services

Patients living with HIV that are identified to require mental health support, can be referred to our in-house mental health services, with access to a counsellor, a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist.