May calls for inquiry into blood scandal
THERESA MAY has ordered an inquiry into the contaminated blood scandal that left 2,400 people dead, amid fears of a cover-up.
The Prime Minister announced the decision yesterday and the details will be agreed in consultation with the families affected, her spokesman said.
Thousands of people were given NHS blood products infected with hepatitis C and HIV in the Seventies and Eighties. Many of those affected and their families believe they were not told of the risks involved and there have been allegations of a cover-up for many years. The inquiry will investigate what went wrong and decide if any further action should be taken.
It could take the form of a Hillsborough-style panel or a judge-led inquiry, but the final decision will be taken after speaking to the families involved, according to Number 10.
Announcing the inquiry, Mrs May said: “The contaminated blood scandal of the 1970s and 80s is an appalling tragedy which should simply never have happened. Thousands of patients expected the world-class care our NHS is famous for, but they were failed”. She added: “The victims and their families who have suffered so much deserve answers as to how this could possibly have happened.
“While this Government has invested record amounts to support the victims, they have been denied those answers for too long and I want to put that right.”
It follows a letter earlier this month, signed by the leaders of all the main political parties and addressed to Mrs May, calling for an investigation into the tragedy. The note, penned by the leaders of Labour, the DUP, the Lib Dems, SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party, said those involved in the scandal should be compelled to participate.
Amongst many other considerations, it is alleged victims’ medical details “were tampered with to hide the cause of their infections,” the letter added.
It also spoke of claims that key documents associated with the scandal were destroyed by Department of Health officials and that contaminated products were “not removed from the blood supply once the dangers became known”.
Mrs May had previously called for anyone with information to pass it to ministers so that it could be investigated. The scandal mainly affected patients with haemophilia across the UK who were given blood products by the NHS in the Seventies and Eighties.
It is thought that some were treated with contaminated supplies of the clotting factor VIII which was imported from the US and contained plasma from donors, including prison inmates who sold their blood. Some of the products used later turned out to be infected with hepatitis C and HIV and 2,400 people died as a result.
It has taken far too long for an inquiry to be announced into the contaminated blood affair, which has killed an estimated 2,400 people. Far lesser events have been subject to in-depth investigation over the years, while what is arguably the worst scandal ever to affect the NHS has never been properly confronted.
The victims were given products infected with HIV and hepatitis C taken from donors who should never have been allowed to give blood. Some haemophilia sufferers were treated with supplies of the clotting agent Factor VIII, which was imported from America, where donor controls were too lax.
This was not, in other words, a British but an international scandal. However, other countries addressed the tragic consequences a long time ago. In France in the early 1990s, Edmond Herve, health minister in the government of Laurent Fabius, was convicted of manslaughter over the deaths of infected patients, though never sentenced.
The relatives of those who died and thousands of others who were infected have been campaigning for decades to find out exactly what went wrong and why. Is it true, as alleged, that some medical records were tampered with to prevent the real cause of death becoming known; and were products removed from the blood supply as soon as the dangers became known?
The victims are entitled to answers but it should not be necessary to establish an unwieldy and hugely expensive public inquiry that could take years to gather evidence and report to find them. A speedy judge-led investigation with access to all the relevant papers is the best option.