File photo A gay Christchurch man has received an apology after a nurse stated he may be HIV positive – in front of a busy waiting room. Liam Taylor, 24, has told Fairfax about his experience earlier this year, when he needed a blood test to ensure he hadn’t caused a dental assistant any harm, when she injured herself on a needle used on him. At St George's Hospital he filled his details out on the incident report. "I took it back up to the desk and the nurse said I had filled out the wrong section of the form. She said I needed to fill out the ‘source' section, not the ‘recipient' section because I was ‘the source of the HIV or Aids'. I was just totally shocked when she said that," he has told Fairfax. Taylor adds he was embarrassed, “and the first thing that came to my mind was, ‘is she just assuming that I have diseases because I'm gay?” Taylor’s had a phone call from a staff member at the lab apologising for the incident. The head of department for patient services at Canterbury Southern Community Laboratories, Melanie Petrie has also apologised: "In the first instance, all health practices should have the blood-body exposure forms on them . . . and under no circumstance should any patient details be revealed.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 16th October 2012 - 9:30am