This week my blog is on Scotland. Scotland's HIV confidentiality laws are pretty vague. The majority of laws on HIV revolve around medical records and criminal intent. The UK National Guidelines for HIV Testing 2008 basically states that you should treat HIV medical records no different than any other medical record. "Patients have a right to expect that information about them will be held in confidence by their doctors. Confidentiality is central to trust between doctors and patients. Without assurances about confidentiality, patients may be reluctant to give doctors the information they need in order to provide good care" Web: British HIV Association, 2009). "All members of the multidisciplinary team must have a contractual obligation not to reveal information about people using services without their consent" (Web: Medical Foundation, 2009). Breaching confidentiality is considered a serious offense and those involved will need to be able to justify their actions or face serious penalties. This is why it is so important for protocols to be in place so that physicians and staff can know when access is appropriate and when it is not (Web: Medical Foundation, 2009). I was not able to obtain specific laws that pertain to HIV confidentiality as well as any indication of the specific penalties involved in violating the laws.
My tidbit for this week is about how HIV infections in England and Scotland's blood donors has shown a large increase over the past 16 years. This basically "means that the chance of contaminated blood reaching patients in the UK needing transfusions has doubled" (Web:Irish Health, 2009). Once the blood is shown to be HIV positive it is destroyed and the the donor is notified of the findings. Internal documents say that the increase in the infected blood could be due to several reasons. One of the reasons could be the increase in the amount of HIV infected people. Another reason could be the recruiting of a more diverse ethnical population for donations. and while most of the latest HIV infected donors were white, The Blood Service wants to remind everyone that there is only a very small chance of HIV infection through current blood transfusions (Web: Irish Health, 2009). Although this information is not directly linked to research, research is involved in finding out why there is the increase or if the virus has mutated in any way where traditional screening may not be as accurate.
My experience getting HIV tested was quite an experience as I don't usually visit the Health Clinic. My pretesting counseling was more like an information gathering experience. Many very personal questions were asked and I tried to remind myself of the reason they were being asked to me. I did find the questions to be very personal and wanted to say that it was none of your business, but I tried to keep an open mind about the testing purpose and the data gathering opportunity for the State. My counselor was very nice and very professional. I'v had blood drawn before so it was not a bad experience. I knew what to expect. I tried to put myself in the place of a drug addict or a prostitute and wondered what they would be feeling if they were being asked the very personal questions. I think the data gathering session would be very difficult for them. Some might would leave in the middle of the visit. Waiting for the results can be stressful, but I tried to put it out of my mind so as not to worry to death about it. Once the results were told to me I felt as if a huge rock had been lifted from me.
How did I grow this week? I learned about the HIV laws or lack of laws in Scotland. I did find that there is still a very large stigma associated with HIV in Scotland with no signs of changing. I learned that other countries can view HIV/AIDS very differently from the U.S. I learned that getting tested is not that difficult. The difficult part is waiting for the results and making sure you are being a responsible sex partner all the time.
Web: British HIV Association (2009). Retrieved Oct. 13, 2009 from http://www.bhiva.org
Web: Irish Health (2009). Retrieved Oct. 13, 2009 from http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html
Web: Medical Foundation (2009). Retrieved Oct. 12, 2009 from http://medfash.org.uk
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Interesting that the medical profession in Scotland views the records much the same way we do here. If you don't need to know, you shouldn't have access to the records.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to learn that their blood banks have detected an increase in HIV positive donors. Perhaps it is due to a more diverse ethnic population donating than in the past. If that is the case, then something needs to be done to educate those populations to the risks of HIV infection.
It was also interesting to read that they are taking more steps to prosecute those who are HIV positive and knowingly infect another person. I was not surprised by the medical record privacy stance. My cousin is a nurse in Scotland and although they are slow with treatment and new technology, they are big advocates of elder care and personal privacy issues.
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