OBJECTIVES: Information on staff resource requirements for outpatient HIV care is useful for effective planning of the service, especially given the increasing and increasingly complex patient population. The aim of this study was to estimate the staff resources used in the HIV outpatient clinic in Cork University Hospital (CUH). METHODS: Staff in the CUH HIV outpatient clinic completed time sheets for 6 consecutive clinics (March-April 2013). Patient identifiable data were not collected, however basic patient characteristics (gender, route of transmission, age > 50 years, Irish nationality, late diagnosis) and clinical information (type of visit and complexity) were included. RESULTS: Over the study period 83% (127/153) of doctor visits were timed. 46% of patients were seen by a senior doctor. The average length of time spent with each patient by senior doctors was 14.5 minutes, while NCHDs spent an average of 24.1 minutes per patient. Patient gender, age, route of infection, nationality, late diagnosis and visit type had little impact on the average length of doctor visit, but visit length was affected by doctor type and complexity. In addition, clinical nurse specialists saw 62% of patients, and spent 14.3 minutes on average per patient. CONCLUSIONS: Time spent with patients varies with the experience level of the doctor. Visit length was also affected by the individual complexity of the visit. The results of this study will be fed into a wider study estimating the factors influencing the cost of providing ambulatory HIV care in Ireland.