Stuff.co.nz
A gay Christchurch man has received a formal apology after a nurse suggested in front of a busy waiting room he could have HIV.
Liam Taylor, 24, had a root canal at Garden City Dental earlier this year. He was on his way back to work when he received a call from the clinic manager telling him a dental assistant had injured herself on a needle used during his procedure.
Taylor was told he needed to have a blood test to ensure he had not caused the nurse any harm.
At the community lab at St George’s Hospital he filled his details out on the incident report.
« I took it back up to the desk and the nurse said I had filled out the wrong section of the form. She said I needed to fill out the ‘source’ section, not the ‘recipient’ section because I was ‘the source of the HIV or Aids’. I was just totally shocked when she said that. »
The nurse retracted the statement after Taylor’s boss, who had accompanied him to the lab, expressed her shock. « The nurse then said, ‘sorry, I mean the potential source of HIV or Aids’. « I was so embarrassed. All these people were in the waiting room and she said it loudly . . . and the first thing that came to my mind was, ‘is she just assuming that I have diseases because I’m gay?’.
« Maybe she did think that, that’s fine, but keep it to yourself and don’t be so unprofessional. I was really mortified and I felt like I was being treated like I was dirty . . . because I’m gay. »
Garden City Dental took $150 off the bill after he told them what had happened. Taylor does not have HIV. He received a phone call from a staff member at the lab apologising for the incident.
The head of department for patient services at Canterbury Southern Community Laboratories, Melanie Petrie, said the situation had « been very badly handled » and apologised for Taylor’s experience.
« In the first instance, all health practices should have the blood-body exposure forms on them . . . and under no circumstance should any patient details be revealed, » she said. Petrie said only a patient’s name should be shared in a waiting room.
298 Youth Health Centre founder Sue Bagshaw said she was « appalled » to hear of Taylor’s case.
« Unfortunately, this is an all-too-frequent occurrence because there is still that underlying homophobia in our society. »
Bagshaw said many of her gay patients had experienced similar incidents.
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