Asylum seekers are bringing a higher rate of HIV infection into the UK, according to an Oxford doctor.

Dr Anne Edwards, a consultant in genito-urinary medicine with the Oxford Radcliffe NHS Trust, spoke out because she felt the Government 'open door' policy was putting hospitals into debt and threatening to halt routine operations for other patients.

Giving written evidence to a Commons health select committee, Dr Edwards, who works in the Harrison Clinic at the Radcliffe Infirmary, said accepting overseas visitors 'off the street' to clinics for testing and treatment was causing a major problem.

She said: "This is entirely appropriate for acute sexually-transmitted infections, but when the diagnosis is HIV infection, we are then committed to providing lifelong, expensive treatment for patients who are not, in other settings, eligible for NHS care."

A spokesman for the Oxford Radcliffe Trust confimed that the figure of 34 patients in treatment at the Harrison Clinic last year had risen to 47 so far this year.

She added that Dr Edwards disagreed with some comments attributed to her in the national press and was not available for further interviews.

Human rights legislation means that HIV positive visitors to Britain from Third World countries are entitled to stay indefinitely while they receive NHS care. It is estimated the cost for lifetime care could reach £1m per person.