Tell me why did we have to ask?

Tell me why did we have to ask for an HIV test before we got one? I understand the reasons why this used to be wise - but is it now?

Even when Barry became very ill and I could see clearly that nothing else could really explain his symptoms -yet we still had to ask the GP to do the HIV test even though they had done lots of other blood tests they had not done this.

Why?
If the numerous locum GPs we saw when Barry had become seriously ill, had, Barry would have got the treatment in hospital he needed sooner and would now have a better chance of living with HIV healthily and for longer.

(We hardly ever saw the same GP twice when Barry became so ill as unfortunately at that time our GP was on paternity leave, but even our own GP would not have done a test unless we specifically asked! )

We should not have had to ask!
As other couples and individuals like us who truly believed that the chances of them ever becoming HIV positive was minimal, may not think to ask and they could die waiting to find out why they were so ill.