I had zero training admits ‘tainted blood’ boss

DOCTOR received ‘zero’ training for his role as senior medical officer responsible for blood disorders at the Department of Health, an inquiry into the ‘tainted blood’ scandal heard yesterday.

Dr Andrzej Rejman, who was in the job from March 1989 to July 1997, said that people were ‘friendly’ and if he wanted to know something he just had to ask.

The Infected Blood Inquiry is examining how thousands of patients were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaming inated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. About 2,400 people died in what has been labelled the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.

A large amount of the infected products were imported from overseas after the UK failed to meet demand, particularly from those with haemophilia.

Yesterday lead counsel Jenni Richards QC asked Dr Rejman: ‘What, if any, trainA did you receive on taking up your role as SMO?’ He replied: ‘Zero.’

He said the principal medical officer, who he reported to, said ‘if you have any problems, my door is there’.

Dr Rejman was also asked about a document in which he said parents and siblings should be excluded from compensation payments, and referred to a haemophiliac as ‘conveniently deceased’. He said: ‘Having read it through, obviously I would use different language.’