Despite repeated follow–ups of the patients of HIV infected doctors and other healthcare workers, no cases have been found of patients infected by healthcare professionals during surgical procedures. The only cases where infection appears to have taken place are those of a dentist who infected five patients, and of one patient infected by an orthopaedic surgeon.

There may have been specific circumstances in the dental practice which led to the infections. Investigators are uncertain as to how exactly transmission occurred. Some researchers are uncertain as to whether the dentist really was the source of infection for his five patients, although the US Centers for Disease Control conducted an extensive investigation. Either way, it provides insufficient evidence to justify the amount of anxiety caused to patients of HIV–positive surgeons by recent panics. It is ironic that whilst many newspapers exaggerate the risks of surgeon–to–patient transmission, the same newspapers are relentless in their quest to deny the risks of HIV transmission in sexual intercourse between men and women. Any rational risk assessment would demonstrate this contradiction. Up until March 1994, none of the 689 patients tested in the UK following five lookback exercises, or of the 19,063 tested in the USA, were infected by their HIV–positive healthcare worker.

In spite of the risk of transmission of HIV from a healthcare worker to a patient being considered remote, the Department of Health has issued guidance on the management of HIV-positive health care workers and on the notification of patients treated by positive healthcare workers. The DOH's position is reflected in the statements of healthcare workers' professional bodies (i.e. the General Medical Council, the General Dental Council and the UKCC).

The employment position of healthcare workers who are HIV–positive, and the Department of Health guidelines on the continuing employment of HIV–positive healthcare workers, is discussed in Employment.