400 patients recalled after doctor diagnosed with HIV

An appeal has gone out to retest 400 patients who were treated by a doctor who has been diagnosed with HIV.

According to NHS officials, the locum was employed Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust between June 2010 and February 2015.

Letters offering testing have since been sent to the patients identified.

The largest number of affected patients is 223 in Nottingham. There were 120 at Chesterfield and 57 in Cornwall.

The doctor at the heart of this precautionary patient notification exercise is no longer working for the NHS. The GMC has served an interim suspension order on the doctor earlier this year because they failed to comply with the conditions placed upon them.

Dr Stephen Fowlie, medical director in Nottingham, said: "Transmission of the virus between an infected healthcare worker and a patient with an open wound can only occur if health workers themselves have an injury with bleeding when they are delivering patient care.

"There is no evidence this happened to this doctor in any patient contact."

Dr David Levy, regional medical director for NHS England Midlands and East, said:  "We understand that this will be a worrying time for patients who are being invited for precautionary testing and their families. However, clinical evidence shows that the risk of infection is extremely low and it is highly unlikely that any of the patients being contacted will have been infected with HIV.