A private patient of the university clinic in Muenster only discovered he had been tested for HIV when received the bill for his care and had been charged 20 Euros for an HIV test. The man, Michael Wessels had signed a consent form to say he did not want the test. The local AIDS Hilfe in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) said they were convinced this is not an isolated case.
Weeks later after discovering he had been tested for HIV he was given a negative result.
The German doctor’s magazine Aerztezeitung reports that the man is taking the clinic to court on the grounds of bodily harm and infringement of his personal rights.
The clinic spokesperson Jutta Reising said “this should not have been allowed to happen”. The clinic director has apologised to the patient and the clinic management drew the staff’s attention to a 1988 clinical directive which stated that HIV tests cannot be carried out without the consent of the patient.
AIDS Hilfe NRW said they suspect that the university clinic often routinely tests patients’ blood samples for HIV, irrespective of whether the patient is deemed to be from a high-risk group of indeed has requested the test. A spokesperson for AIDS Hilfe NRW said that they often receive reports of individuals who had been tested against their will, but this was the first incident in which the patient had made legal moves and was identifiable. Most patients, he said were unwilling to come forward and be identified. “Now, the case can be identified with an individual by name.”
The original article can be read in German
here.