Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT)

Sometimes the best or only way to treat certain infections is to give antibiotics intravenously. However, you may not always need to remain in hospital for this treatment. Intravenous antibiotics may be required for a few days or weeks. Your doctor or nurse will explain why IV antibiotic treatment may beneficial.

A vascular access device is a thin, flexible, plastic tube that is placed into the vein using a small needle. This will be needed in order for the IV antibiotic to be administered into the vein. The type of vascular access device that you may need will depend on a combination of factors. These include the number of days that IV treatment may be needed, the type of IV antibiotics needed and the health of your veins.

The OPAT Clinical Nurse Specialist and a doctor who specialises in infections will meet with you to assess your health problems. The option of having IV antibiotic therapy at home or at the OPAT clinic will be discussed with you. They will ask questions about your health, about your lifestyle, where you live and who is around to help at home. The team will then decide if antibiotics can be provided for you safely whilst you are at home.

There are a number of ways that the OPAT service can facilitate IV antibiotic therapy in the community. The OPAT team will discuss the options available to you. 

The OPAT team will need to monitor you carefully when you leave hospital. You will need to regularly attend follow up appointments at the Mortimer Market OPAT clinic - usually once each week. During your visit to the clinic, you will see a specialist nurse and infection doctor.

During your IV antibiotic treatment at home or at the OPAT clinic, it is important that you contact the OPAT team in the event of any issues. This may be if you are unwell, have problems with the antibiotics prescribed for you or with the vascular access device that was inserted at the hospital. Please refer to the ‘Traffic Light Action Card’ for guidance.

Contact details for the OPAT team are noted on the back of this leaflet.

If you require patient transport to attend your outpatient appointment, please contact the transport assessment team no later than 3:30pm the day before your appointment – the telephone number can be found on the back page of this leaflet.

Weekdays 9am -5pm

OPAT Clinical Nurse Specialist

07535 327416

Out of Hours and Weekends

Infectious Diseases Registrar

07908 250924

Address

OPAT Clinic - Hospital for Tropical Diseases

2nd Floor Mortimer Market Clinic

Capper Street

London

WC1E 6JB

OPAT Team: 020 3447 5956

Switchboard: 020 3456 7890

uclh.OPATatHTD@nhs.net

www.uclh.nhs.uk

Ambulatory Care Unit

University College Hospital

1st Floor - Acute Medical Admissions Unit

235 Euston Rd

NW1 2BU

Patient Transport Service

020 3456 7010

Waterproof protection for IV lines

LimbO - Waterproof protection for casts and dressings and IV lines

www.limboproducts.co.uk/home

012 4357 3417

UCLH cannot accept responsibility for information provided by external organisations.

Contact details

The Hospital for Tropical Diseases, 2nd Floor

Mortimer Market Centre Capper Street

London

WC1E 6JB

020 3447 5968 Switchboard: 020 3456 7890

Website: www.uclh.nhs.uk

Email: uclh.htdadmin@nhs.net

Have you travelled to a tropical country in the last 6-12 months and are you acutely unwell? You can be seen in our emergency walk-in clinic Monday to Friday 9am-4pm.

Our travel medicine service offers specialist travel advice including for individuals with complex health conditions. We offer this on a privately and via NHS referral basis. Please contact: uclh.htdadmin@nhs.net or 020 3447 7999 for more information about our services.

If you need a large print, audio, braille, easy read or translated copy of this document, please contact us on 020 3456 7891 We will try our best to meet your needs.