Patients may not be told of Aids risks

HIV ruling

Patients treated by a nurse or doctor with HIV or Aids will not automatically be told of the risk under new rules to be issued by the Department of Health early next year.

Under the current rules all patients who have been treated by a health professional with the virus have to be told about the possible risk of contracting the disease. But from January next year, only those who have a serious chance of contracting the disease have to be informed.

The new rules are likely to cause disquiet among patients' groups who have argued that there should be absolute transparency about health professionals with HIV or Aids.

Currently anyone undergoing a surgical procedure, dentistry, gynaecology and some forms of midwifery are informed if there is a tiny risk of contracting HIV from an NHS employee. Patients at risk are instantly offered an Aids test to see if they have contracted the virus and many have faced extreme anxiety about the risk.

An NHS specialist who is HIV positive is currently fighting a landmark legal action to stop his patients being warned of the risk of infection. He claims it would be a breach of his privacy for authorities to inform people he has treated that they may have been exposed to the virus. The new NHS guidelines will mean that his identity would not necessarily have to be revealed.

Advice from the Expert Advisory Group on Aids and the United Kingdom Advisory Panel for Health Care Workers infected with Blood-Borne Viruses have said that the risk of passing on HIV from infected doctors and nurses may not be as serious as thought.