Fifty-seven HIV positive adults, most of whom were injecting drug users, who were attending two Dublin inner-city general practices were surveyed to monitor the general practice and hospital levels of care they received. Many were in advanced stages of the disease and during the year 10 of the original 57 died (17.5%). The group made a median of seven visits to GPs during the year (range 0-35) and two visits to hospital HIV clinics (range 0-21). A quarter attended only GPS (14/57) and two patients attended neither during the year. Fifteen of the fifty-seven needed hospital admission (26.3%) on a total of 31 occasions with an average stay of 10 days per admission; 80% of the admissions were made by 10 patients with AIDS.

The paper concludes given the level of care required by patients with symptomatic or advanced HIV that agencies involved in their care liase regularly.