About this service
North Manchester General Hospital’s Department of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine is home to the North West Regional Infectious Diseases unit. Our service is a tertiary referral unit for complex infections as well as providing on-site, secondary care for infection-related problems.
We have particular expertise in blood-borne viruses (HIV, hepatitis B and C, HTLV), providing care for around 2400 people living with HIV and 2500 with hepatitis B. We are the largest hepatitis C treatment centre in the UK, treating over 700 people per year.
Our tuberculosis (TB) service is based at NMGH but we also provide clinic services on site at Royal Oldham Hospital and Rochdale Infirmary for people with TB or non-tuberculous mycobacterial infections living nearer to those hospitals. As a designated centre for treatment of multi-drug-resistant TB, we have inpatient isolation facilities and a cross-site multidisciplinary team to deliver care for people with complex TB.
Our inpatient provides care for people with infections, including brain infections, community-acquired infections, HIV-related problems, infections in the immunocompromised, TB, COVID-19, tropical and imported infections, skin and soft tissue infections. We provide a consults service on site as well as expert input into antimicrobial stewardship, a community outpatient antibiotic service and transfers in from other hospitals across the North West.
We run a busy outpatient service, with clinics delivered by our consultants and specialist nursing and pharmacy staff. Many consultations are now done remotely, but we consult in person as needed on an individual basis. Outpatient services are provided for people with viral hepatitis, HIV, TB and non-tuberculous mycobacteria, tropical infections (returning travellers), community-acquired infections and symptoms of possible infection requiring investigation. We have joint clinics with other specialists, including with neurology for HIV-and other infection-related neurological problems; with hepatology for people with viral hepatitis and advanced liver disease (eg, cirrhosis) and we provide the supra-regional service for people with HTLV infection (human T-lymphotropic virus).
Referrals
We accept referrals in several ways:
Emergency referral for inpatients or people who may need hospital admission should contact the on-call registrar via NMGH switchboard on 0161 795 4567
Clinicians at other hospitals or GPs looking for urgent advice should contact the on-call registrar via NMGH switchboard 0161 795 4567
Postgraduate training
The department provides training for specialty trainees in infection (around 10 specialty trainees at any time); whether training in infectious diseases with general internal medicine, or with medical microbiology or virology. The busy inpatient service is also staffed by internal medicine trainees and Foundation Programme doctors as well as clinical fellows. We welcome new trainees at each rotation.
Dr Alec Bonington is the training programme director for infectious diseases, Health Education North West.
Undergraduate training
We provide placements and teaching for 4th and 5th year medical students and are affiliated with the University of Manchester School of Medicine.
Meet the team
Consultants
Dr Javier Vilar (GMC 3422867): Lead for hepatitis service
Prof. Andrew Ustianowski (GMC 3546703): Lead for research
Dr Alec Bonington (GMC 3355143): Lead for TB service
Dr Celia Hogan (GMC 6103638): Lead for sepsis
Dr Karen Devine (GMC 6128645): Lead for antimicrobial stewardship and undergraduate education
Lead and specialist nurses
Our specialist nursing teams are led by experts in their fields, alongside the consultant medical team.
Lead nurse for infectious diseases: Helen Riley
Ward manager: Kerri-Anne Folkard
HIV: Jill Delaney, Grace Newbold
TB: Helen Ogden, Stacey Farrow
Clinical psychology
Providing clinical psychology services for people living with HIV, our team is led by Dr Sarah Rutter.
Occupational Therapy
TBC