A ruling by a county human rights panel sends a message to the medical community that failure to provide medical care to AIDS patients will not be tolerated, said an attorney who won an AIDS discrimination case last week involving a former county resident.
The panel concluded on Thursday that the Howard County Medical Society discriminated against a man by denying him a medical referral because he was infected with the AIDS virus.
"All doctors have an obligation to treat HIV patients and other people with disabilities," said Deborah J. Weimer, the man's attorney and an assistant professor of law at the University of Maryland Law School in Baltimore. Weimer made the comments yesterday at a press conference at the law school, where she supervises the AIDS Legal Clinic.
"There's a small group of dedicated medical people at Maryland and at Hopkins seeing this community, but as the epidemic continues, there will be a need for other doctors to be willing to take on the responsibility," Weimer said.
Either party has 30 days to appeal the panel's decision to Circuit Court. Weimer said she is happy with the decision and probably won't appeal for more damages unless the medical society appeals the decision.
The society has not yet decided whether to appeal.
The panel found that "overt discrimination occurred" when the medical society's secretary told the man that "none of their physicians would accept an HIV-positive patient" when he called for a routine medical referral in August of 1988.
The panel awarded the former Columbia resident $1,376 in damages to compensate him for the humiliation and mental anguish he suffered as a result of his call to the medical society.
In addition, the panel ordered the medical society to adopt a policy specifically stating that discrimination based on handicap, including exposure to the HIV virus, will not be tolerated.
It's a tremendous relief," said the man, whose first name is David. He is in his mid-30s and lives in Anne Arundel county.
"It's one thing to be discriminated against, but to have to go and prove it and convince people of it has been very difficult for my family and others involved," he said.
The medical society has consistently denied any discriminatory practices and claims that many of its member doctors treat AIDS patients.
Society president and county health officer Dr. Joyce Boyd said last week that she was "very disappointed" in the panel's decision.
