Covid Antivirals Service

The operating hours have now changed and are now as following:
Monday: 9am - 1pm
Tuesday: 9am - 1pm
Wednesday: Closed
Thursday: 9am - 1pm
Friday: Closed
Saturday: 9am - 1pm
Sunday: Closed

Yorkshire Health Partners deliver the service that prescribes antiviral therapeutic treatments for patients who are in the most vulnerable groups and have tested positive for Covid-19 in the community.

If you have contracted covid and are classed as a highest-risk patient (to view a list of highest-risk patient, please visit: Defining the highest risk clinical subgroups upon community infection with SARS-CoV-2 when considering the use of neutralising monoclonal antibodies (nMABs) and antiviral drugs (updated March 2023) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

You can be referred into this service by:
-         Contacting NHS 119/111
- Completing the COVID-19 self-referral form at the bottom of this page
-         A referral from your GP
-         A referral from your specialist team at hospital.  

What happens if I am referred?

Once we have received your referral, a clinician will aim to contact you within 24 hours to complete to an initial triage to see if you meet the criteria for antiviral medication. If you meet the criteria to receive the antiviral therapeutic treatments, you will then be contacted by one of our GPs who work in the service to agree a treatment plan with you. A prescription will be issued to a chemist for the appropriate treatment.

Please note, if you are under the age of 18, have contracted covid-19 and are identified as part of the highest-risk cohort of patients, your referral may take longer to be dealt with, this is because we need to get specialist input from paediatric teams to ensure that you receive the right treatment.

You may be considered not eligible for antiviral treatment if:
-         Your symptoms started more than 5 days before we have received your referral.
-         You do not meet the nationally laid out criteria as highest-risk patient

Since our CMDU opened in December 2021, (YHP took over in March 2022) we have had up to 70 referrals a day.
It has been necessary to treat less than half of the people referred. This is because not everyone is actually eligible, as their immune system is strong enough to be able to work against COVID-19. For example, people with asthma or COPD who sometimes take prednisolone for an exacerbation get onto the list but if the prednisolone dose is a short course only, the person is not considered immunosuppressed. Prednisolone in high dose (e.g. 20 mg per day) for a prolonged time (over 4 weeks) can decrease the immune response.

Some people don’t have many symptoms when they get Covid or they get better very quickly, this means that  their immune system is working well to fight the Covid and so they do not meet the criteria on this occasion for treatment either.

What are some available treatments?

- Paxlovid – a tablet which stops the virus from reproducing.
- Molnupiravir – a tablet that stop the virus from reproducing. You may be prescribed this if you have any issues with your liver. It is an alternative to Paxlovid.

Covid-19 Antiviral Self Referral Portal

If you have had a positive test in the last 2-3 days and you fall into one of the high-risk vulnerable patient categories, please click here to be directed to our self-referral portal to register your COVID-19 test for potential antiviral treatment.

If you cannot access the portal by clicking the image below, please visit: https://selfrefer.yorkshirehealthpartners.co.uk/ to register your COVID-19 test.