Health authorities in Hubei province have asked HIV designated hospitals to block information about the HIV status of patients after some doctors at general hospitals have allegedly declined to treat HIV patients after they learned about their conditions through patients' test results sharing system, according to media reports.

An HIV patient went to a general hospital in Hubei for a cold on Sunday. The doctor refused to provide care upon discovering the patient's positive HIV status through the hospital's treatment system, as reported by Dingduan News, citing Shen Long, an HIV volunteer.

The doctor said he was worried he might prescribe the wrong medicine and could not write him a prescription.

Shen said another patient was declined service at a hospital in Jiangxia district of Wuhan on Nov 30 for dental treatment after a doctor found his HIV-positive diagnosis from another hospital.

The doctor said the hospital has limited sources for disease prevention and asked him to find treatment elsewhere.

According to the official website of Hubei Health Commission, in September, medical institutions in the province were asked to share test results for 82 items to avoid repeated tests. The tests included those for HIV, COVID-19, hepatitis and syphilis.

Shen believes that the medical record sharing platform has increased the risks of exposing patients' medical information and the chances of medical institutions declining treatment.

He said an official with the Hubei Health Commission told him the platform had recently opened and that the authorities would take active action when loopholes were discovered.

The commission has notified designated hospitals to block such information and protect the information security of "people with special diseases."

An employee at Hubei Provincial Hospital of TCM told Redstar News that a doctor at the hospital observed that the patient, who allegedly had a cold, tested positive for HIV within its system.

However, the staff said the patient declined to go through a blood test and only asked the doctor to write him a note so he could ask for leave.

The doctor wrote him the note and did not prescribe any medicine, the staff said. He stressed that the hospital did not avoid treating the patient and it has treated several patients with HIV and hepatitis.

"The treatment is the same and there is no reason to turn down patients," the staff said.

The incident triggered heated discussions online and became one of the most discussed topics on Sina Weibo on Wednesday.

Many netizens said that patients with infectious diseases are obligated to notify medical workers to get better protection.