500 Yorkshire patients in HIV scare over infected healthcare worker

A total of 519 people are being offered precautionary tests after it was discovered the health worker, who has tested positive, could have posed a potential risk.

The individual, who is not being identified, spent time working for Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals Trust, Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Hospitals Trust and York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Health chiefs say as soon as they became aware of the situation, the worker was removed from duties where there was a potential risk of infection being transmitted.

Doctors believe the likelihood of infection is "extremely low". Some 371 patients treated in Hull, 47 treated in Scarborough and 101 treated in York for specific procedures are being invited for precautionary tests by the three NHS trusts involved.

Alastair Turnbull, medical director of York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We have written to 101 of our patients after it was found that a member of staff who treated them was infected with HIV.

"The member of staff worked at York Hospital, as well as in Scarborough and Hull.

"We are informing patients who underwent particular types of procedure involving this healthcare worker, and are offering them support, counselling, and the opportunity to undergo testing."

Meanwhile, the health trusts involved are keen to point out that the risk of cross-infection is "very low".

Dr David Hepburn, medical director at Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals Trust, said: 'Recalling patients for testing is purely a precautionary measure. It does not mean that the infection has been passed on.

"We appreciate this must be worrying for those involved and would like to apologise for any distress this causes.

"The most important thing now is that those patients who do receive letters contact the advice line number they are given to arrange a free and confidential HIV test as soon as possible."

Doctors do not know when the worker contracted the HIV infection and as a precaution they have worked to the earliest date of potential cross-infection when the individual began work in the region.