Tainted blood scandal ‘is the worst tragedy in NHS history’

Yesterday’s Daily Mail

certificates, many victims believe government officials deliberately destroyed evidence relating to groups like the Advisory Committee on the virological Safety of Blood.

Aidan O’Neill, QC, represented 250 Scots affected, as well as Haemophilia Scotland and the Scottish Infected Blood Forum. He told the inquiry his clients were baffled and hurt about the Scottish Government’s apparent reluctance to participate.

He said that when victims sought treatment, they were ‘stigmatised by healthcare professionals, blamed for their conditions, accused of being drug addicts or secret alcoholics’.

He added: ‘Their medical records during their lives and sometimes their death certificates baselessly recorded and maintained these false accusations, based on ill-founded assumptions and prejudice and ignorance. They asserted that the patients were to blame. Such records did not acknowledge the state caused these conditions by its own abusive conduct. This disaster ruined lives and ruined families.’

Lloyd Williams, QC, for 107 victims, also questioned the role of Lord Owen – health minister in 1974 – who pushed for Britain to start producing its own blood products. The inquiry was asked to investigate what ‘made him so concerned regarding the contamination of [blood products] purchased from America that he directed that measures should be put in place to become self-sufficient within five years’.

The inquiry continues.