OUTPATIENT MEDICAL-CARE OF INJECTION-DRUG USE RELATED HIV

By the end of March 1990 470 HIV positive patients, 77% injection drug use (IDU) related, had attended the outpatient department of the Regional Infectious Disease Unit with a cumulative loss to follow-up of only 20%. Coincident with the prescribing of oral methadone and a specific all-day IDU-related HIV medical clinic the total number of appointments increased from 28/month in May 1986 to 300/month in May 1989 (P < 0.001) and the number of defaulted appointments decreased from a maximum of 60% (17/28) to 16% (48/294, P < 0.001) in these months. There was a significant initial increase in the number of defaulted appointments for the infectious disease (ID) clinics from 11% (77/726) to 16% (124/797, P < 0.01) which returned to previous levels once a specific IDU-related HIV clinic was established. There was also a significant decline in the number of new patients referred which was greater for the urinary tract infection clinics (108 to 56 per 6 months, P < 0.0001) than for the ID clinics (119 to 88 per 6 months, P < 0.05).