-Caveat Lector- >From Scotland on Sunday
Sun 28 Jul 2002 GMC rules out HIV tests for foreign health workers MEG MILNE FOREIGN doctors and nurses working in Britain will not be tested for HIV even if they come from countries with soaring rates of the killer virus, it emerged yesterday. The General Medical Council - the watchdog body for doctors working in the UK - has ruled out the tests, saying they would be illegal. The ruling comes in spite of fears that patients� safety is being put at risk by the growing number of doctors and nurses joining the NHS from countries with high rates of HIV infection to plug the shortfall in home-grown medical staff. It also coincides with concerns over the poor language skills of some foreign health workers after it emerged last week that a surgeon in London was forced to abandon an operation because nurses could not understand his instructions. Yesterday Sir Peter Morris, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said the Department of Health had approached the recruitment of foreign specialists to work in the NHS like "a bull in a china shop". Over the past 10 years, 40% of applications to the General Medical Council have come from doctors outwith the European Community - many from African nations where rates of HIV infection have reached epidemic proportions. Meanwhile, the latest figures from the General Medical Council show that in the last year more than a third of all doctors who registered to work in Britain were from overseas. A total of 3,631 foreign doctors applied for registration with the council. But yesterday, a spokeswoman for the council said compulsory testing on foreign doctors would be illegal. She said: "The Medical Act of 1983 does not allow us to impose a requirement to test for HIV on doctors. The act does not require a doctor to comply. "Before any type of testing could be brought in, the government would have to introduce new legislation." There have also been a spate of cases involving British doctors, who have not declared that they were HIV positive - sparking health scares among patients when their conditions become public. At the moment, doctors, nurses and health care workers are not required to take an HIV test. Earlier this year, hundreds of women telephoned a helpline after it emerged that a doctor at the obstetrics and gynaecology department at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness was HIV positive. The man, who was not named, no longer works for the hospital. Although the Scottish Executive said last night that new guidelines would be introduced for the NHS in Scotland, it added that the issue was a matter for the Department of Health. A spokesman for the Scottish Executive said: "We are considering drafting guidance which will be circulated for consultation as soon as possible. "In this case the issues governing medicine are a reserved issue and as such will be dealt with by the Department of Health but we will consider all their guidance." Last night Dr Beverly Malone, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: "Patients can be confident they are not at risk from nurses who are HIV positive. "All nurses have a duty to work safely and those who are aware of their HIV positive status also have a responsibility to seek expert medical advice. "It is important that employers in the NHS ensure that a culture of trust exists so that staff feel able to disclose health issues in confidence and seek appropriate support and advice." 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