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B.C. Police Officers Want Access to Medical Records If Exposed to Blood

Posted on: Saturday, 25 February 2006, 18:00 CST

By ELIANNA LEV

VANCOUVER (CP) - Anyone who has been exposed to bodily fluids during a rescue or altercation should have access to medical records to determine if they are at risk of diseases like HIV, says the B.C. Federation of Police Officers.

The officers want the province to pass legislation that would give the access to members of the public and emergency workers.

The so-called Good Samaritan act would apply to victims of crime, paramedics or police punctured by a needle, for example.

The act would also apply to citizens who arrive at an accident scene before emergency personnel arrive and are exposed to bodily fluids.

Similar legislation has been proposed in other jurisdictions but never proclaimed.

Civil libertarians say that's a good thing because of privacy concerns.

But Don McKenzie, president of the police federation, which represents 3,000 officers across the province, stressed the information wouldn't be entered in a data bank.

"What we're proposing is that some legislation be drafted so that it's possible to get a warrant to have blood tested for contamination, and that's all," said McKenzie.

The proposal was drafted at the federation's annual meeting, which was attended by the B.C.'s solicitor general and attorney general.

Micheal Vonn of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association said such a law would be a blatant violation of personal privacy.

"Clearly the idea here is there should be an entitlement to access other people's medical records and that's a fairly radical notion," she said.

Vonn also questioned the proposal's logic, saying if someone were exposed to potentially contaminated blood, they would need to start anti-viral medication immediately.

She said waiting for blood results would minimize the effectiveness of such drugs.

"The notion of getting somebody spot-tested in order to find out if your source has HIV is not going to give you very much guidance in terms of what you can do, constructively, to minimize your own risk," Vonn said.

The attorney general and the solicitor general were not available to comment on the proposal.

In 2001, MP Chuck Strahl, now B.C.'s regional minister and Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, sponsored a private member's bill that would have required any person who contaminates another with body fluid to give a blood sample for testing.

Strahl was unavailable for comment of the police group's proposal.

In December 2001, a similar law was passed in Ontario but never proclaimed.

Under that law, medical officers were allowed to order blood samples from someone who exposed an emergency worker, Good Samaritan or crime victim to bodily fluids.

The blood would be tested for infections such as HIV, hepatitis C and spinal meningitis, which are all diseases on the provincial health ministry's communicable disease list.

Source: Canadian Press

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