Patient's concerns about discrimination

What happened

Mr B's GP referred him to an NHS Treatment Centre run by Care UK for investigation and treatment of his sinusitis (an infection of the sinuses). Mr B had recently been diagnosed as HIV positive. Doctors arranged an operation for him but the surgeon told Mr B that the surgery would not now go ahead at the Treatment Centre but that he would refer him to another hospital. The surgeon said this was in case of complications, but Mr B thought that he was transferring his care as he did not want to treat him because of his HIV positive status. Mr B felt he was discriminated against.

What we found

We did not uphold the complaint as the Treatment Centre had accepted its shortcomings and taken action to prevent the same thing happening again.

There were clinical reasons for transferring Mr B as he had a high risk of serious complications. The surgeon had discussed the case with his colleagues, and they felt that it was in Mr B's best interest to have surgery where there was access to a full range of equipment and multidisciplinary teams. The Treatment Centre was only able to deal with straightforward low risk surgery and did not have access to specialist teams or equipment.

The surgeon did not communicate the reasons for the transfer very well, which led Mr B to believe that he was transferring him because he was HIV positive. There were shortcomings in the surgeon's communication with the patient, which the Treatment Centre and the surgeon acknowledged. The surgeon said he had undergone training to improve his communication skills, and told us that he was very sorry for the distress caused to Mr B.