Officials ‘lose’ files on blood scandal
HEALTH: Hundreds of files relating to contaminated blood were removed by Government officials and went missing.
A Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) investigation following the start of the Infected Blood Inquiry found around 950 files relating to blood policy had been “checked out” by staff going back years.
HUNDREDS of files relating to contaminated blood were removed by Government officials and went missing, it has emerged.
A Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) investigation conducted last year following the start of the Infected Blood Inquiry found around 950 files relating to blood policy had been “checked out” by staff going back years.
The GIAA report – seen by the Press Association – has been released under Freedom of Information laws to campaigner Jason Evans, whose father died in 1993 having contracted hepatitis and HIV.
The 29-year-old, who is suing the Government for negligence, said the removal of documents “probably goes back decades” and could form part of a cover-up.
The contaminated blood scandal has been labelled the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.
Thousands of patients were infected with HIV and hepatitis C via contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. Many had haemophilia, a blood-clotting disorder, and relied on regular injections of clotting agent Factor VIII, which was made from pooling human blood plasma.
Britain was running low on supplies of Factor VIII so imported products from the US, where prison inmates and others were paid cash for giving blood.
In September, the first UKwide probe – the Infected Blood Inquiry – heard that more than 25,000 people could have been affected.
Two previous inquiries have been branded a whitewash by campaigners.
The GIAA report released to Mr Evans and dated November 6, 2018, said almost 1,000 files relating to blood policy had been checked out by officials.
These included around 450 files checked out by Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) staff and a further 500 by Department for Education staff.
It said: “DHSC staff can check out paper files they need from the archives, [they] should return these once finished. The records management (RM) team has identified that there are c.450 files relating to blood policy which have been checked out and not returned, and the RM team is currently working to recover these.
“The team has put up posters around the DHSC offices, asking staff to return any files that they have checked out, and through an item in the DHSC bulletin, the RM team has reminded staff to return files to storage if they are no longer used.
“The RM team is planning a series of site visits to properties currently and previously held by DHSC, to identify any physical files located in these areas.”
The report said a separate group of 500 files was checked out from specific DHSC archives by “officers from the Department for Education (DfE) in 2006, and have not been returned”.
It said that while the DfE has been co-operating with recovering the files, 45 files remain unaccounted for.
The DHSC would not disclose the content of the files and does not record why they were checked out. It initially denied Mr Evans access to the report under Freedom of Information laws, but finally did so when pressed.
The DHSC said the majority of files had now been accounted for and it was working to locate the remainder.
It also said it had a complete understanding of what was in the files, adding that it was usual practice for DHSC staff to need access to records.
A spokesman said: “We are committed to being open and transparent with the inquiry and have waived the usual legal privileges to assist the process.”
We are committed to being open and transparent.
Department of Health and Social Care spokesman.