Owen blasts health chiefs over blood scandal

EX-HEALTH minister Lord Owen has admit- ted the health department’s actions contributed to the tainted blood scandal.

Speaking at the Infected Blood Inquiry yesterday, the peer said the governments of the day failed to take action despite knowing imported blood supplies were ‘contaminated’.

Thousands of Britons were infected with HIV and hepatitis in the 1970s and 1980s after being treated with blood products imported from America. As Labour health minister between 1974-1976, Lord Owen said he tried to reduce the number of tainted products coming from the US.

But after he left in 1976, he said the department quietly abandoned the policy. ‘It’s maladministration... I am appalled this commitment was never secured – as a result infected blood was introduced long after it need it to be,’ he told the first day of the reopened inquiry.

The contaminated blood scandal has been labelled the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS amid claims of a government cover-up. The current inquiry comes after two previous ones were branded whitewashes.