DENTIST REFUSES HIV-POSITIVE PATIENT. DENTIST FINED BY PRIVACY AUTHORITY

Three years ago, in 2018, in Rome a boy turned to the Gay Help Line 800713713, national toll-free number against homotransphobia, after being denied a dental visit in a private specialist medical practice.

The doctor had given the patient a questionnaire in which he was asked to explicitly highlight if he had had or suspected he had any infectious disease or was HIV positive. While they were still in the waiting room, the doctor had informed him that he could not proceed with the clinical examination because his HIV positivity "would not allow him to prevent possible infection of the staff and other patients.".

After the The Medical Association intervened in response to the public complaint by Gay Help Line, to take relevant measures. This was followed by a complaint to the Personal Data Protection Authority, which issued a specific ordinance on 10 June 2021 (here link) in which he highlights that the doctor's conduct did not comply with the specific regulations regarding privacy and establishes that requesting information regarding the HIV status of each patient who visits a medical practice for the first time violates the principle of lawfulness and minimization of the data requested (Article 5 of the Privacy Regulation).
It also notes that the doctor acted in violation of law 135/1990, which provides that any healthcare facility, public or private, adopts precautions aimed at protecting all the people assisted from contagion, given the impossibility “to identify with certainty all patients with HIV infection”. Therefore the Guarantor has ordered the application of a administrative fine of 20 thousand euros for the doctor, given the illegitimacy of his conduct.