Blood scandal apology is 30 years too late
Many thanks for the clarity of Ian Birrell’s article in last week’s Mail on Sunday, in which he detailed the biggest disaster in the NHS’s history – that 34,000 people were given HIV or hepatitis C through infected blood transfusions. It was a heart-rending tale. That 2,000 of the patients died is indeed another monstrous statistic of pain.
To learn that Ireland swiftly gave financial help to their unfortunate individuals or families – a sum averaging £750,000 – while we in Britain are just getting the result of a six-year inquiry into the disaster only shows how inefficient as a nation we have become.
George Lambert, Burscough, Lancashire Waiting 30 years for an apology is a joke. Many of the people who were infected haven’t lived to hear it.
Siobhan de Bheil, County Louth, Ireland In 1971 my mother needed a blood transfusion after a hysterectomy. In 1979 she fell ill, culminating in her untimely death in 1980. She was only 58. I tried to get answers from the hospital and the coroner at the inquest. The only thing we were told was that she had cryptogenic hepatitis.
My family believed the blood transfusion was the cause. In the 1970s, bloods were not crosschecked and I believe they were bought in from overseas. The coroner would not confirm this and was unreceptive to my questions. Apologies are irrelevant to my family.
Glynis Maidment, Nancledra, Cornwall Much of the blood infected with hepatitis C and HIV was brought in from abroad, from high-risk paid donors. A friend was infected with hepatitis C in 1986 by a transfusion. He lost his successful career and was left physically disabled by the drugs used to treat him in hospital.
The late Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, was also infected with hepatitis C by a transfusion. Most sufferers have received no redress or even an apology from the NHS.
Thank goodness for a free press, such as The Mail on Sunday, to uncover such injustices.
Name and address supplied It’s fitting that David Cameron made the apology since all the problems happened under the Tories’ stewardship of the NHS in the 1980s.
These days the Tories say the NHS is safe in their hands. But they always want to cut here and privatise there. Sure, there are winners in this – the spivs who make money from it. But the losers pay with their lives.
James Benn, London