§ Mr. ButlerTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services whether, in the light of research undertaken on surgical glove punctures at Leicester general hospital, he will introduce routine pre-operative HIV testing for patients and regular screening for surgeons.
§ Mr. NewtonThe health care workers sub-group of the expert advisory group on AIDS intends to review its "Guidance for Surgeons, Anaesthetists, Dentists and their Teams for Dealing with Patients Infected with HTLV III", issued in 1986, and will take into account any relevant evidence. Meanwhile, as my hon. Friend is aware, the expert advisory group's report "AIDS: HIV Infected Health Care Workers", published last month, concluded that the risk of the virus being transmitted in a health care setting is extremely low, and stressed that no case of a patient being infected by a health care worker has been reported anywhere in the world.