
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 19, 1990                   TAG: 9004190400
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: MACON, GA.                                LENGTH: Short

PANEL TOLD HOSPITALS REFUSE AIDS PATIENTS

The National AIDS Commission was told by health workers here that every hospital in Macon - including the county's 500-bed public hospital - has intentionally made it difficult for uninsured AIDS patients to get access to needed medical care.

Commission members listened Tuesday to charges of discrimination against AIDS patients in central Georgia during the final session of a two-day site effort to assess the impact of AIDS on rural areas.

Local hospitals deny that they discriminate against AIDS patients, but some people with AIDS told the commission that even the county-owned Medical Center of Central Georgia sometimes turns AIDS patients away from the hospital's walk-in clinics - even when they are county residents entitled to care.

Mike Gilstrap, the medical center's vice president in charge of general services, said the hospital admits any Bibb County AIDS patient in need of care.

- Cox News Service

by CNB