Blood victims ‘discredited in doctored files’
MEDICAL records were destroyed and altered to present victims of Britain’s tainted blood scandal as drug addicts or alcoholics, an inquiry has heard, amid claims of an attempted “cover-up”.
A lawyer representing 250 victims told the independent Infected Blood Inquiry many had given similar accounts of files disappearing, or of “false information” added, which suggested their own behaviour had caused liver damage or infection with HIV.
Aidan O’neill QC urged the chairman, Sir Brian Langstaff, to investigate claims when full hearings open next spring. Another lawyer acting for victims said the infection of patients with HIV and hepatitis was an act akin to inflicting grievous bodily harm – or in some cases murder.
Lloyd Williams QC, who is representing 107 victims and two haemophilia charities, told how one married woman was accused of having multiple sexual partners or using illegal drugs when she was diagnosed with hepatitis C. She had actually contracted the virus from a blood transfusion during childbirth many years earlier.
He accused authorities of keeping their “mouths shut, files closed and shredders busy” for the past 30 years, adding: “A recurring theme is the great difficulty victims have had in obtaining their medical records, and that when records have been obtained, they have crucial periods missing from them.”
He criticised the “appalling arrogance” of doctors who felt it was acceptable not to warn patients they might be at risk.
In one case, a woman who regularly gave blood found out she had been infected with hepatitis C more than a decade earlier but had never been told.
“No attempts were made to track her down, or to prevent her from doing what she thought was best … She told me this morning she felt like a murderer,” he added.
David Lock QC, representing about 240 victims or their relatives, said “If it is true that civil servants deliberately destroyed documents to draw a line under the disaster … then our clients were required to live with the consequences of the decisions made by public officials for the rest of their lives.”