Hospital denies HIV drugs to gay man

A gay Sydney man was denied access to preventative medication by a major hospital despite being at-risk of contracting HIV. 30-year old Sydney resident Stephen*, whose name has been changed, had unprotected sex with a stranger on the night of December 22.

The following day he rang the NSW Government’s Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) Hotline, a service that provides information to people who believe they may have been exposed to HIV.  The hotline recommended Stephen report to the nearest emergency department and request a course of PEP medication, which he did that evening. After waiting for more than three hours at the Royal Prince Alfred (RPA) Emergency department, Stephen was informed that the head doctor on duty had denied him access to PEP medication on the grounds that he was “low-risk”.

Stephen protested, arguing that the hotline had urged him to seek PEP medication, but was repeatedly denied. The doctor never spoke to Stephen himself, communicating only through a nurse. Stephen’s request for a second opinion was also denied as there was only one doctor on duty.

The following day Stephen explained his situation to a doctor at St Vincent’s Hospital. The doctor, who also chose to remain anonymous, recommended Stephen report to St Vincent’s Emergency department as soon as possible, where he was quickly prescribed a seven-day course of PEP and underwent a blood test almost 48 hours after initial contact.

PEP medication is virtually useless to prevent HIV contraction 72 hours after initial contact, and is ideally taken as soon as possible.

Longstanding NSW health policy states the medication should be prescribed to people whose risk of HIV contraction is higher than one in 15,000. St Vincent’s estimated Stephen’s risk of having contracted HIV was as high as one in 160.

Stephen, who has since tested HIV-negative, described the experience as “extremely distressing”.

However, reliable HIV test results cannot be guaranteed until three months after the incident occurred.

“I’d been advised to get this medication ASAP, but I found the response at RPA really confusing. The nurse kept telling me I was low-risk, but low-risk doesn’t mean no risk. I didn’t know my rights – if I’d known I was entitled to access PEP I wouldn’t have left RPA without it,” he said.

He has lodged a letter of complaint to RPA Emergency with assistance from the doctor he saw at St Vincent’s.

“The refusal of RPA’s emergency department to provide me with PEP not only caused me significant anxiety and distress but prolonged the time it took me to finally access preventative medication,” the letter states.

The Star Observer has requested a response from the RPA. The RPA declined to comment at the time of publication as they were waiting until they had received and reviewed the formal complaint.