Survivors in threat to shun tainted blood probe

VICTIMS of the contaminated blood scandal have threatened to boycott the Government’s inquiry into the disaster.

Families and survivors want control of the inquiry to be taken away from the Department of Health – and have refused to take part until the Prime Minister can assure them it will be truly independent.

Theresa May last week announced an inquiry into the ‘appalling tragedy’ that killed 2,400 people infected with hepatitis and HIV in the 1970s and 1980s after being given contaminated stocks of the clotting agent Factor VIII, used to treat patients with haemophilia.

Minutes of papers disclosed by the Daily Mail suggest patients were given the deadly blood for at least five years after health officials became aware of the danger.

Mrs May said victims, relatives and campaign groups would be consulted about the form they wished the inquiry to take.

But campaigners say they will boycott the first consultation meeting – scheduled for today – unless control of the inquiry is transferred to a different Government department.

A letter signed by the Tainted Blood campaign group and nine other organisations said health officials were implicated in the original scandal and could not possibly be trusted to run an independent inquiry.

A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘We are absolutely committed to a thorough and transparent inquiry.’

‘Implicated in the scandal’