THE time has come for the onus to be put on hospital employers to insist on Aids tests for all doctors.

DR Olukayode Fasawe worked for three hospitals across the country for more than a year but he was found to be HIV positive only after he died last week.

When he joined the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital as a gynaecologist earlier this month he did not declare he was HIV positive in a questionnaire filled out before joining the staff.

Although experts agree that the risk of a doctor or health care worker transmitting the virus to a patient is very small, hundreds of hospital patients treated by Dr Fasawe could face Aids tests.

The amount of time and money this exercise will take will be considerable. Routinely testing doctors and other medical staff who treat people would not only reassure patients but it should also be cost effective.

People in some other professions, notably airline pilots, have to undergo regular medical checks. Doctors, particularly those carrying out "invasive" examinations should be required to do the same.

People who were treated by Dr Fasawe are being advised not to panic. But only an extremely stoical patient will fail to feel some twinge of anxiety on learning of the doctor's medical condition.

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