Hospital staff failed man living with HIV by unnecessarily delaying surgery

A hospital that unnecessarily delayed a man’s surgery at the last minute because he had HIV failed in their care, according to England’s Health Ombudsman.

The 48-year-old from Walsall, who does not want to be named, had been due to have prostate surgery at Walsall Manor Hospital on 10 March 2020.

His surgery was scheduled to be the first of the morning. As he was about to enter the operating room, he was told that due to his HIV status his surgery would now be moved to last on the operating list that afternoon.

The hospital claimed that this was due to the level of cleaning and infection control that would need to take place following his surgery to reduce the risk to others.

However, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), found that Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust acted inappropriately and failed the man.

This is because the universal precautions that apply to all patients having surgery are enough to protect and prevent infections from spreading among patients and staff. Therefore, no additional cleaning should have been necessary.  

The policy of placing a patient at the end of an operating list usually relates to patients with a high-risk bacterial infection. It should not be applied to a person who has HIV and is receiving treatment.

The Ombudsman also found that although the Trust had made some changes since this happened, they had not done enough to make sure the same mistake did not reoccur.

PHSO recommended the Trust apologise to the man and create an action plan to stop this happening again. The Trust has complied with these recommendations.

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Source: Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, 1 December 2023