Kate Slemeck, St George’s Managing Director, welcomed visitors from DHSC and gave an overview of how the CMDU team have performed since launching in February, before Dr Carolyn Johnston, CMDU lead and Deputy Chief Medical Officer for St George’s, ran through the team’s day-to-day experience working in the unit, discussed case studies and what worked well.
The CMDU – Covid Medicines Delivery Unit – offers people who are immunosuppressed and test positive for Covid-19 with the newest antiviral treatments to prevent their condition from worsening.
Since mid-December, the team have received and triaged 5,800 referrals and treated over 1500 people, and have delivered over 100 courses of Paxlovid – one of the newest antiviral treatments available – to patients at home since mid-February.
The unit is within the best in the country having treated 100% of patients with first line treatments.
Dr Carolyn Johnston, CMDU lead and Deputy Chief Medical Officer for St George’s, said: “I’m extremely proud of the hard work and dedication from the team to be able to achieve such fantastic performance figures and do the best for our patients. The unit was set up as a South West London initiative, led by St George’s, and we’ve had input from all the other acute Trusts in the area as well as GPs, so it’s a great example of collaboration in the sector.”
Charlotte Taylor, Director of the Antivirals and Therapeutics Taskforce at DHSC, said: “I am very grateful to Dr Carolyn Johnson and her colleagues at St George’s Covid-19 Medicines Delivery Unit for hosting last Thursday’s visit from the Antivirals and Therapeutics Taskforce at DHSC. For my colleagues, many of whom have worked on the procurement and deployment of antiviral and other therapeutic treatments for Covid-19 over the past two years, it was a privilege to meet with staff who deliver the CMDU’s vital services at St George’s, and to learn in a most tangible and personal way about this work.”