Judge's Gag Over AIDS Threat to Patients in England

A judge last week provoked an outcry by gagging the Mail on Sunday (MOS) from publishing the name of a National Health Service (NHS) health care worker who has AIDS. MOS is also enjoined from revealing details of the case or the branch of medicine in which the professional specializes.

The judge's decision was in response to the specialist's lawyers, who invoked new human rights legislation protecting an individual's right to privacy. This includes the professional's right to not hand over computer records of 2,000 patients he has treated during ten years. The health worker claims he has received expert advice indicating there is no real risk he has infected a patient, and that no retrospective investigation to trace patients in the United Kingdom has ever revealed that a health care worker has infected a patient.

The case has outraged government officials, whose concern was intensified by revelations that the NHS had itself wanted to inform patients about the man's condition. "Inevitably, this man's name is going to come out and it is better that people are contacted by the health authority and reassured than leaving them in the dark and letting them wonder if it is any of them," said one source. Roger Goss, director of Patient Concern, said, "What is more important -- his privacy or patient safety?"

The specialist, who was diagnosed as HIV-positive several months ago after falling ill, can be referred to only as H. He has not practiced since his diagnosis and does not plan to return to work. The health authority where he worked, named only as N, has planned to carry out a "look back" initiative to inform patients of their exposure to the risk of HIV infection.

H is seeking an order banning the health authority from using any patient records he has previously disclosed and from revealing his identity or HIV status to anyone. H also claims that the "look back" exercise will cause "great and unnecessary distress" to patients.

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