About the Regional Infectious Diseases Unit (RIDU)

Warning

Who to refer​ and available guidance

Who to refer:

  • Referrals for consideration of Infectious Diseases admission/transfer
  • Individuals presenting with fever or other infective symptoms following travel
  • Individuals for whom a bedside infection consult service review is required​ (this can be requested through any infection specialist).
  • Individuals with invasive/severe infection with difficult-to-treat or unusual organisms where treatment regimens are not well-established or infection specialist assessment of source/disseminated infection would be beneficial
  • Individuals with suspected or confirmed tropical infections
  • Clinical advice for inpatients who are living with HIV
  • Advice on treatment of inpatients with confirmed COVID-19

 

Infection advice is also available from these sources:

 

Guidance on what makes a good referral

First check if you can access advice without phoning
  1. Review the "Who to refer and available guidance" section and check if your question would be better directed to Microbiology/Virology/IPC or answered by guidance available via this toolkit/antimicrobial prescribing guidelines/guidelines
  2. Review the patient's TRAK record and see if infection advice has already been given. Infection Service notes can usually be found in TRAK clinical notes by searching "infs"
  3. If you still need to contact ID:
    1. Non-urgent advice for primary care can be accessed using SCI-Gateway referrals
    2. In secondary care see the below checklist and ideally phone within usual hours 0900-1900

 

Before you phone please ensure you have the following information:

Situation

  • Hello my name is...I’m phoning from...about a patient (name, age, CHI).
  • The working diagnosis is... and I would like to ask about....(IV to oral switch/duration etc.)
  • Can I tell you more about the patient?

Background

  • Important co-morbidities, organ dysfunction (acute and chronic) and immunosuppression (transplant, chemotherapy, HIV etc).
  • What has happened to the patient up to now?
  • Relevant travel history. The below information is important for us to give accurate advice:
    • Travel destination(s): Detailed history of travel including dates of arrival and departure, and
      countries of transit. Detailed information on the locations visited within each country is useful for assessing specific risks.
    • Environments: Rural versus urban, humidity/temperature, season, altitude, type of accommodation.
    • Activities: Swimming in fresh or salt water, safari, caving, hiking, hunting, etc.
    • Diet: Consumption of street food, meat, bottled water, unpasteurised dairy products.
    • Bites: Recall of bites from animals, insects, or ticks.
    • Sexual history: Protected/unprotected sexual intercourse, details of partners.
    • Malaria prophylaxis and pre-travel health: Use of chemoprophylaxis, mosquito nets, and
      insect repellent; pre-travel/childhood immunisation history.
    • Health while traveling: Details of any illness episodes while traveling and any healthcare
      accessed, admission to hospital or intensive care, cosmetic/aesthetic procedures undertaken
      outside the UK including dental procedures and tattoos, use of antimicrobials.
    • Unwell contacts: Contact with unwell individuals in the community or in hospital.
    • Funerals attended: Details of any funerals attended.
  • Does the patient have any known allergies? Have you reviewed the penicillin allergy section in the Antimicrobial prescribing guidelines?

Assessment

  • What is the patient's current NEWS? Is it getting better or worse? Do they have sepsis?
  • What did you find when you examined the patient?
  • What investigations have been performed and what are the results?

Recommendation

  • Summarise the question and the advice you require

 

How to refer ​

For secondary care:

  • The NHS Lothian Infection service comprises of Infectious Diseases, Medical Microbiology, Medical Virology and Infection Prevention and Control teams. Registrars are dual trained between specialties.​
  • General infection advice can obtained by calling 0131 537 3373 (x63373)
  • Referrals can be made by contacting the Infectious Diseases Registrar via page 8161 9am-7pm 7 days a week.
  • Emergency advice is available via the on-call consultant through NHS Lothian switchboard outwith these hours​.
  • For patients already on the RIE infection consult service there is an email address available, which will be written in infection consult service notes​.

For primary care, please see RefHelp guidelines:

 

Services offered​

  • The Infectious Diseases department has two inpatient wards at the Western General hospital, wards 42 and 43. ​
  • OPAT delivers outpatient antimicrobials with sites at the Western General, St. Johns​ Hospital and East Lothian Community Hospital.
  • There is a consult service which runs at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and the Western General Hospital and a front-door in-reach service to Western General Hospital acute medicine (further details below)
  • Blood borne virus services include HIV, HBV, HCV clinics and teams.

 

Infectious Diseases WGH In-Reach MAU Base 1/MAU Trolleys/Ward 72

The ID team provide an in-reach service daily Monday to Friday for early specialist review of cases in acute areas of WGH.
  • Cases are selected by the acute medicine team & listed on the MAU whiteboard.
  • Up to maximum four cases each morning.
  • Extent/detail of review at discretion of ID team according to workload.
Examples of cases deemed suitable for early specialty ID review:
  1. Febrile returning travellers
  2. Complicated urinary tract infection (pyelonephritis or lower UTI with multi-resistant organism)
  3. Probable/proven CNS infection
  4. Cellulitis requiring IV antibiotics
  5. Acute gastroenteritis (acute onset new diarrhoea with systemic upset)
  6. Fever, systemic upset, no clear aetiology
  7. Patients with a penicillin allergy label who are on watch/reserve antibiotics

 

Where is RIDU​

  • The Regional infectious Diseases Unit can be found at the Western General Hospital, close to the Telford Road Entrance.​

 

A map of the western general hospital with the location of RIDU highlighted

Clinical Infection Research Group

The Clinical Infection Research Group Edinburgh is a collaborative organisation bringing together researchers from across NHS Lothian, University of Edinburgh, and our partners further afield in healthcare, academia, and industry.

For more information on research within CIRG: Clinical Infection Research Group (CIRG) Edinburgh 

 

Travel clinic

The travel clinic is based in the Regional Infectious Diseases Unit (RIDU) at the Western General Hospital. The clinic provides pre-travel advice, vaccination and prophylaxis to over 1,000 new patients a year. 

For full details on the NHSL travel clinics, opening hours, contact details, and prices please see our public facing site at:

Travel Clinics – NHS Lothian | Our Services

Editorial Information

Last reviewed: 26/06/2024

Next review date: 31/07/2025

Author(s): Dr Callum Mutch, Dr Naomi Bulteel.

Version: 1.0

Approved By: RIDU consultant group

Reviewer name(s): Dr Callum Mutch, Dr Naomi Bulteel.