The president of the Quebec College of Physicians (QCP) announced Tuesday new measures for doctors infected by blood-borne diseases. Under the new policy, physicians infected with HIV, hepatitis B and C have to inform QCP of their medical condition. A panel comprising a microbiologist, a surgeon and a public health representative, independent of both QCP and the doctor's hospital, would determine which medical procedures the infected physician could still safely perform.

The panel would follow the physician's progress and reorient his or her career when necessary, toward research, for example. Noncompliant doctors would face penalties, said QCP President Dr. Yves Lamontagne. "We have to be honest: in medicine, the risk of infection is not zero and never can be zero."

QCP rejected routinely screening doctors. Doctors will not have to reveal their medical status to patients, said Yves Robert, QCP assistant director, citing a "very low risk of transmission." In addition, doctors might avoid testing if they were forced to reveal their health status to the public, thus endangering their own health as well as that of their patients, he said.

The new policy is in response to an HIV-positive doctor who operated on 2,614 children from 1990-2003 in Quebec without informing her patients or their parents of her serostatus. While a committee decided she would wear double gloves and use only covered needles, no one monitored her. In January, the hospital where she worked recalled her patients for blood tests, all of which came back negative.

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