Surgeon infects patient with hepatitis C

Officials at the Department of Health have no plans to introduce routine hepatitis C tests for healthcare workers after the announcement last week that a surgeon had infected a woman patient with the bloodborne virus. The incident is thought to be the third documented case of a patient being infected with the virus by a surgeon. The surgeon, who had worked at the Pilgrim Hospital in Boston, Lincolnshire, since 1997, is on sick leave. A sample of his blood taken two years ago, before the woman's operation, was found to be positive for the virus. Since the case came to light, another blood sample, taken in 1993 by the hospital that then employed the surgeon, the Torbay District General Hospital, has also been …