NEW TAINTED BLOOD SCANDAL

Patients infected with HIV forced to sign away rights to sue – before being told they’d also contracted hepatitis C

VICTIMS of the contaminated blood scandal were persuaded to sign away their legal rights without knowing they had a second deadly condition, the Daily Mail can reveal.

More than 1,200 patients who had been infected with HIV were forced to sign a contract with government officials promising to drop all legal action.

After they signed, they were told they had also been infected with hepatitis C.

The contracts were signed in 1991 and victims were each paid a cash sum of about £24,000, depending on their age, marital status and whether they had children.

The Department of Health was aware in 1989 that the patients had hepatitis C – which causes severe liver damage – but didn’t tell them until after the contracts had been signed. Patients with both HIV and hepatitis C tend to die much more quickly than those with just one of the viruses.

The contracts expose a shocking cover-up by the Government in what is considered the NHS’s worst treatment disaster.

Up to 7,500 patients are thought to have been infected with diseases after being given blood products or transfusions in the 1970s and 1980s. Many had the blood- clotting

disorder haemophilia and relied on regular injections of a medicine called Factor VIII, made from human blood.

Britain was running low on Factor VIII so imported supplies from the United States where they had been donated by prisoners, the homeless and prostitutes for cash.

Many were contaminated with HIV and hepatitis and they were never screened or heat-treated.

The patients made to sign the contract all had haemophilia and had been trying to take a group legal action against the Department of Health after finding out they had HIV.

Campaigners say the Government was desperate to keep the scandal away from the court for fear of the publicity, criminal charges and compensation claims that might follow.

The contract, sent out via patients’ solicitors, states: ‘I undertake not to bring any proceedings against the Crown or any health service body now or at any time in the future in respect of the said infection of (blank space for name) by human-immuno deficiency virus or hepatitis virus.’

Jason Evans, the founder of Factor 8, whose father died in 1993 after being infected from both hepatitis C and HIV, said: ‘It was the greatest trick the Department of Health would ever pull on them.

‘The Government and Civil Service in this country wanted to bury the truth about what happened. They had their reasons: criminal prosecutions were occurring in other countries such as France, the potential liability was enormous and senior officials stood to be in real trouble.’

Labour MP Diana Johnson, who campaigned for the public inquiry into the scandal, said: ‘ The scale of the contaminated blood scandal is truly shocking.

‘As the public inquiry proceeds, further disturbing revelations will no doubt come to light both regarding the original errors that were made and the efforts to cover it up over several decades.’ Sharon Hodgson, Labour’s shadow health minister, said: ‘This is a horrifying and shameful series of events.’

One patient who was made to sign the contract said he was told by his solicitor that if he refused, none of the other patients would get their money.

Adrian, who doesn’t wish to reveal his full identity, said:

‘Shameful series of events’

‘He told us it had to be everybody, or nobody. If one person didn’t sign, the financial thing wouldn’t happen.’

Most patients only found out they had been infected with hepatitis C in 1994 and 1995 when the Department of Health carried out further testing and results were shared with doctors.

Had patients found out earlier, they could have been given treatments to encour- age their immune system to attack the virus. Although the drugs weren’t as advanced as those available today, they would have significantly improved the patients’ survival chances.

The Mail has seen documents which show that Department of Health officials were aware in 1989 that the patients had hepatitis C. Tests had been carried out on patients’ blood without their knowledge when they attended haemophilia clinics.

A letter sent by an official from the department in October 1989 states: ‘In the case of NANB hepatitis (hepatitis C), the majority of haemophiliacs became infected after frequent use of concentrate, more quickly if commercial rather than UK concentrate was used.’

It adds: ‘The new hepatitis C antibody test has shown the majority of severe haemophiliacs to be positive.’

Despite the scale of the scandal, none of the government officials, doctors or drug companies responsible has faced criminal charges. In France, which used the same blood products, up to 30 people have been prosecuted over charges including negligence and deception. Two people have been jailed.

The public inquiry began last month and it is being chaired by a former High Court judge, Sir Brian Langstaff. Over three days of preliminary hearings, victims and relatives gave emotional accounts of how their lives had been devastated after being diagnosed with HIV and hepatitis.

The inquiry is now gathering evidence in the form of written documents and statements from witnesses. It will begin hearing from victims at the end of April, followed by doctors and government officials, and is expected to last at least two years.

A Department of Health spokesman said it was unable to comment due to the ongoing inquiry.

THE more we learn about the contaminated blood scandal, the darker and more grotesque it becomes.

Already regarded as the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS, new disclosures about the sheer scale of attempts to cover it up – and the depth of cynicism involved – are simply breathtaking. thousands of patients, mainly haemophilia sufferers, were infected with HIV and hepatitis in the 1970s and 80s after being treated with diseased blood plasma imported from the US.

At least 2,500 patients died and many more lives were grievously blighted.

And today the Mail reveals that a further outrage was committed against these blameless victims. In return for a modest compensation payment in 1991, up to 1,240 haemophiliacs infected with HIV were made to sign an agreement not to pursue future legal action.

What they didn’t know at the time however, was that most of them had also contracted a second deadly condition, hepatitis C, which causes severe liver damage. Unforgivably, the Department of Health

did know but kept it secret, allegedly to avoid higher damages and an even greater scandal. As a result, patients weren’t told for years, and were denied vital treatment. For some, that was tantamount to a death sentence.

It’s hard to imagine a more egregious breach of trust, or a worse abrogation of the duty of care owed by hospital to patient. Indeed, many would regard it as criminal deception.

In France, which used the same tainted blood products, two officials were jailed over the scandal. In this country, no-one has paid the price.

We can only hope the current inquiry will identify those responsible and see they are brought to book.

For all its commitment to patient care, the NHS is shrouded in a sinister culture of denial and obfuscation – where all mistakes must be ruthlessly covered up and whistleblowers bullied into silence.

this lamentable tragedy demonstrates just how fatal that culture can be. For the sake of all the thousands who died so needlessly, it must be made to change.