I ‘ kicked myself’ over UK’s blood supplies, says ex- Minister Owen
A FORMER Health Minister has said he “kicked” himself for not realising earlier that something was “seriously wrong” with efforts to make the UK self- sufficient in the supply of blood products and avoid the risks posed by potential contamination.
Lord David Owen, while serving as a Labour Health Minister from 1974 to 1976, pledged that the UK would become self- sufficient in blood products, with some £ 500,000 to be spent on the policy.
The peer faced questions over the implementation of the policy as be appeared before the Infected Blood Inquiry at Fleetbank House in central London yesterday.
The inquiry is examining how thousands of patients were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s, with around 2,400 people dying.
The inquiry heard that at the time Lord Owen was at the Department of Health, a new therapeutic treatment for haemophilia patients had emerged, known as anti- haemophilic globulin concentrate ( AHG), an example being the product Factor VIII, which was commercially available.
Lord Owen explained the new treatments relied on pooled human blood that could carry the risk of passing on infections such as hepatitis.
Lord Owen said voluntary donors were more likely to honestly answer questions about whether they had jaundice which could indicate whether they had hepatitis.
But in 1982 he said he heard the then Health Secretary say the Government was introducing a policy of self- sufficiency for blood products. “What the hell was happening all those years before?” he said. “That was the moment when I started to – rather belatedly – I rather kicked myself that I didn’t start earlier to try to find out what was happening.”
Previous witness hearings which featured testimony from victims have taken place in London, Belfast, Leeds, Edinburgh and Cardiff.
The inquiry continues.