The Ombudsman on HIV/AIDS patients' care

AJB 1026/2012.

The Ombudsman on HIV/AIDS patients' care

It is against the professional rules and a violation of the prohibition of discrimination and the right to human dignity  if  health care institutions do not provide treatment for patients who have revealed their special infectious disease. The commissioner for fundamental rights has warned for this in the course of his inquiry concerning a complaint contesting denial of treatment for and referring to other surgery of HIV-infected AIDS patients.

A legal defense NGO has brought to the attention of ombudsman Máté Szabó that members of the medical staff of the dental surgery at Central Stomatology Institute had posted a notice on the door - as the inquiry revealed without their bosses knowledge – saying that HIV-infected and AIDS patients will not be provided by medical care but they will be referred to László Hospital. The institution's management had ordered to remove the notice even before the beginning of the inquiry and had forbidden to place informative of similar content.

The commissioner contacted several county hospitals and clinics to find out how often are patients denied to get treatment for a disease which is not related to their infectious disease and how typical is their referring is such cases.

The commissioner found only one hospital where, according to its rules of procedure, HIV-infected and AIDS patients suffering other health problems as listed in the internal protocol of professional rules should be referred to László Hospital. The commissioner asked the director of the hospital to modify the protocol that is seriously violating the prohibition of discrimination, human dignity and legal certainty.

The commissioner has requested the minister of human resources to take all necessary measures to make the activities of the National AIDS Committee more effective and to initiate the adequate funding of the relevant professional dental care protocol.

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