Training and education

MBBS, Cambridge University/Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, London, July 1999.
MRCPCH, London, November 2003.
Masters in clinical paediatrics, Institute of Child Health, London, May 2006.

Experience

Dr Patel is a paediatric infectious diseases and immunology consultant working at Southampton Children’s Hospital.

Dr Patel is part of UHS’s paediatric immunology and infectious diseases team, who support and advise on antibiotic management for all children and babies treated in Southampton as inpatients. They become more involved with the care of children in hospital when an infection is complicated or difficult to treat, or when there is a diagnostic dilemma. The team of three consultants is also responsible for overseeing children receiving antibiotics at home.

In outpatients, Dr Patel and his team see children with a range of infections and immune conditions, including

infections like HIV and Lyme disease
rare or unusual infections (confirmed or suspected)
genetic disorders of the immune system (known as primary immunodeficiency disorders)
infections children are born with (congenital infections, for example cytomegalovirus).

The team also sees children who have been admitted to hospital previously with suspected or confirmed serious infections like sepsis or meningitis, including children who have previously been treated on intensive care. They can also see children more urgently in clinic if necessary, for example those with suspected tuberculosis or Kawasaki disease.

Antibiotic stewardship

Dr Patel's specific area of interest is antibiotic stewardship. In 2012, he introduced the first paediatric outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (p-OPAT) service in the UK. He is also a member of the BSAC OPAT standing committee and currently chairs the p-OPAT national working group, jointly run by the British Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, and British Paediatric Allergy, Immunology and Infectious Diseases Group. He is tasked to develop good practice guidelines for the introduction and delivery of p-OPAT services in the UK. See the document circulated for the national consultation in March 2014.

Dr Patel is a member of the patient management system, audit and national outcomes registry workstream, and the drug stability and testing workstream. Regionally (South of England), he has developed and implemented empirical antibiotic guidelines across the South of England.

Being a member of the NICE antibiotic stewardship guideline development group has allowed Dr Patel to utilise his knowledge and experience to improve antibiotic stewardship nationally. Dr Sanjay Patel and Prof Saul Faust were instrumental in writing the national service specification for tertiary paediatric immunology and infectious diseases services in the UK. He is also involved in developing education material for the antibiotic resistance and prescribing in European children (ARPEC) project and is co-lead for the module on antimicrobial stewardship.

Other paediatric work

Dr Patel has been appointed by the Wessex strategic clinical network (SCN) to lead a regional project to reduce unplanned paediatric admissions and improve the quality of care for children and young people in Wessex. Through this project, he works closely with Public Health England, commissioner, parents/patients, and clinicians at primary and secondary care level to improve the management of acutely unwell children.

Dr Patel has also worked within the field of paediatric HIV and TB in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

Key achievements

Innovation - introduced a service to safely manage children requiring IVAb at home using novel antibiotic delivery devises. This approach has been taken up by other children's hospitals across the UK.
Chairs the BSAC/BPAIIG national p-OPAT workstream and leads a group tasked to write UK p-OPAT good practice recommendations. With BSAC, he has helped develop a national patient management system and registry to ensure robust clinical governance and bench marking.
Involved in setting-up a Wessex-wide ID/immunonology network with representation from across Wessex, Jersey and Guernsey. The aim of this group is promote safe and consistent practice through the development of Wessex wide guidelines and to act as a forum for managing complex patients.

Awards and prizes

Centre for respiratory infection research fellowship, Imperial College London, December 2009.
Awarded funding to lead a Wessex maternity, children’s and young people SCN project improving the quality of care for children and young people in Wessex. Phase 1 – reduced avoidable presentations and admission, March 2014.

Research

Actively involved in clinical research and continues to review for the Archives of Disease in Childhood (ADC), Pediatrics and BMJ case reports.
Local principle investigator (PI) for a number of national studies on the NIHR portfolio (serious infection in children - EUCLIDS, improving the diagnosis of TB in children - NIKS, neonatal meningitis study - NEOMEN).
Supervises local research projects looking at TB education for adolescents (2012), cord blood levels in newborn babies following Caesarean section (2013) and antibiotic stewardship within Southampton Children’s Hospital (2014).
Supervisor for Wessex service improvement fellowships looking at medication safety on the neonatal unit (2012) and education of parents on self-limiting infections (2014).

Find out more about Dr Patel's main publications.

Contact

You can contact Dr Patel via his secretary Heloisa Whyatt on 023 8120 6417 or by emailing Heloisa.Whyatt@uhs.nhs.uk.