Blood scandal delays

The first public hearings will be held today as part of the inquiry into the contaminated blood affair that killed an estimated 2,400 people, arguably the worst scandal ever to affect the NHS. To say that this has been a long time coming would be an understatement.

Some of those who died were treated as far back as the 1970s and there were suspicions nearly 30 years ago that the fatalities were linked to products infected with HIV and hepatitis C taken from donors who should never have been allowed to give blood. In France in the early 1990s, the former health minister Edmond Hervé was convicted of manslaughter over the deaths of infected patients, though never sentenced.

This was, in other words, an international scandal; but while other countries addressed its tragic consequences a long time ago, here in Britain only now are the relatives of those who died finally in a position to find out exactly what went wrong and why. We know part of the story already. Some haemophilia sufferers were treated with supplies of the clotting agent Factor VIII that was imported from America where donor controls were too lax. But what is unclear is whether a cover-up then ensued and medical records were tampered with to prevent the real cause of death becoming known. Moreover, were products removed from the blood supply as soon as the dangers were apparent? The victims and their families are entitled to answers.

It has taken far too long to confront this matter and the chosen vehicle, a public inquiry, inevitably means the truth will not be known for a few years yet, if it ever is. Two previous inquiries failed to uncover the full facts. This one must.