Indore hospital refuses admission to HIV, AIDS patients

[Guest guest]

Indore hospital refuses admission to HIV, AIDS patients

Mamta Mishra. Indore, October 14

In what is being seen as a blatant attack on the fundamental rights of

patients, a charitable hospital in the city openly refuses to admit HIV

positive patients and insists on mandatory testing of HIV before performing

surgeries.

Gita Bhawan Hospital located, at Manormaganj Indore run by the famous Gita

Bhawan Trust, has shocked the medical fraternity here by issuing circulars

(notice No. 2003-451 dated October 3) to all its doctors asking them not to

admit any HIV positive patient when the status is known to them.

" All patients (admitted in the hospital) whose status is known should be

discharged and referred to the government run MY Hospital, except for the

OPD procedures in all cases booked for surgeries, it is mandatory to get HIV

test and Australian antigen tests done and the surgery dates should be fixed

only when the tests are negative? "

The hospital authorities say that the decision has been taken keeping in

mind the safety of the doctors and para-medical staff. But this decision not

only openly discriminates a patient just due to his status as HIV positive

it also flouts the guidelines and testing policies of National AIDS Control

Organisation (NACO) and World Health Organisation (WHO), which say that

there cannot be any HIV testing without the consent of the individual. The

NACO testing policy initiatives state, in section 5.6 (1), that no one

should be forced to undergo HIV test.

The hospital administration denied that they were discriminating against HIV

patients. When contacted, hospital director Dr AM Gandhe told Hindustan

Times, " We do not have an isolation ward for such patients. We also cannot

arrange for proper infection control measures due to financial constraints.

Though we are training our staff on universal precaution measures, most of

the time they do not practice it due to ignorance. "

Initially, Dr Gandhe denied issuing any notice but when shown the copy of

the notice he said that probably the translator misinterpreted his order,

which was originally in English. He insisted that the hospital did not

refuse treatment to AIDS patients but admitted they take mandatory testing

for HIV even without the patients' consent.

However, he also admitted that they do not reveal the status to him or his

relatives. " We refer the patient to MY Hospital for further treatment and

there is nothing wrong in this, " he claimed.

But the Health Minister Bala Bacchan sought to disagree. When contacted he

told this correspondent that this was a matter of concern and the hospital

was openly flouting the guidelines.

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A News item pickedup from Hindustan Times -15th October for our group.

Dr V P Pandey

E-mail: <vppandey@...>