Blood scandal ‘could have been avoided’

Ex-health secretary Lord Fowler says UK missed the chance to stop imports

FORMER health secretary Lord Fowler told an inquiry that the infected blood scandal ‘could have been avoided’ yesterday.

Thousands of Britons were infected with HIV and hepatitis in the 1970s and 1980s after being treated with contaminated blood products that were cheaply imported from America.

Lord Fowler, health secretary from 1981 to 1987, said there was an opportunity to limit damage caused by stopping the imports prior to him taking office. He told the Infected Blood inquiry officials should have heeded the advice of Lord Owen, Labour health minister between 1974 and 1976, who wanted the UK’s blood service to become self-sufficient.

Lord Fowler said: ‘By the time I got there in September 1981, it was too late for me to influence the outcome (of imports). If David Owen’s advice had been taken and we’d gone for selfsufficiency as a nation, then much of the ensuing tragedy – probably not all of it – but much of it, could have been avoided.’

Lord Fowler added that changing the policy when he took office in 1981 was ‘too late to influence events’ and that blood began being heat-treated and screened by the Blood Products Laboratory (BPL) from 1985.

He added: ‘There’s no way that by autumn of 1981 there was anything that I could have done, my government or my department could have done, to influence the outcome because however you measure BPL and its progress, there is no way it could have been up and running... it just wasn’t possible.’

Asked by lead counsel Jenni Richards QC as to why Margaret Thatcher did not take quicker action to have blood products treated after she took office in May 1979, Lord Fowler said he was unsure but believed it was due to financial reasons.

The inquiry previously heard from Lord Owen, who said there were concerns over dangers of blood from paid US donors including prisoners, drug addicts, prostitutes and the homeless in the early 1970s.

As health minister Lord Owen announced in early 1975 the UK would work towards meeting demand for blood clotting products itself in three years.

But he told the inquiry last year the policy was abandoned after he left in 1976. He said he ‘deeply regrets’ not being able to stop imported blood products being used in the NHS, which could have prevented thousands more being infected.

Jason Evans, of the Factor 8 campaign group for victims of the scandal, said they have been left ‘in the middle’ following Lord Fowler’s evidence blaming the previous government.

He added: ‘What I think is quite disingenuous is for him to now try and avoid any responsibility by pleading that this was someone else’s fault.’

The scandal has been called the worst treatment disaster in NHS history amid claims of a government cover-up.

Two previous inquiries were branded whitewashes. The hearing continues.

‘Too late to influence events’