Posted: 17-Jan-2006 << BACK
'Destroyed' files key for haemophiliacs given infected blood
The Scotsman
By Shan Ross
COPIES of previously secret files released last month in Scotland may hold the key to helping hundreds of haemophiliacs and other patients infected with hepatitis C or HIV in the 1980s and early 1990s in their fight for compensation.
The government admitted yesterday that the majority of files documenting meetings between the Blood Transfusion Service (BTS), health boards and consultants had been accidentally destroyed. But campaigners lobbying for people infected through NHS blood products said last night that copies of some documents, released last December by the Scottish Executive under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI), would allow lawyers to construct a "legal jigsaw" to pursue cases throughout the UK.
The documents held by the Department of Health (DoH) would have provided information on when precisely the government became aware of the risks and what measures were taken to warn patients. The Executive's FOI material indicates the government knew as early as March 1972 there were serious problems with contaminated blood. One such document notes a letter sent by the Glasgow and West of Scotland BTS to a haematologist, voicing concerns. Andy Kerr, the health minister, released the information after members of the Scottish Haemophilia Forum indicated in February 2005 they were about to request information under the Act. The destroyed files contained information on meetings between the BTS and health boards and could have provided evidence agencies knew of contamination problems before informing patients.
Contaminated blood products led to the infection of about 4,800 haemophiliacs in Britain with hepatitis C and 1,200 with HIV. About 300 of the 1,200 are still alive.
Philip Dolan, chairman of the Scottish Haemophilia Forum, said he was "dubious" about government claims that the files had been accidentally destroyed. "We have been told on many occasions papers were missing, only for them to resurface years later. I have read through the majority of papers released under the FOI and there are a number of very interesting letters including one on 31 March, 1972, from the West of Scotland BTS to a Dr Biggs, a haematologist in Oxford, raising concerns about haemophiliacs and blood transfusions. There are other documents like this."
Frank Maguire, of Thompsons solicitors in Glasgow, who represents more than 100 hepatitis C sufferers, said the FOI documents would be pieced together in a "jigsaw", but that only a full judicial inquiry would suffice. "Pre-devolution decisions were made by the Department of Health so any documents showing what was going on are extremely valuable. "Certainly we have the documents issued on CD form by Andy Kerr, but some of them are blanked out, which creates more suspicion. What we need now is an inquiry to find out where exactly the blood came from, when and how it was allowed to infect people, what preventative measures could have been implemented and what was done to trace people to avoid cross infections. What we intend doing is connecting up the documents we have with those which have been destroyed and we hope to trace those who were at meetings to find out what was said." Mr Maguire said cases involving three sets of relatives had been brought at the Court of Session in an attempt to force the Lord Advocate and the health minister to hold an inquiry.
Last month it emerged that 640 patients in Scotland infected with hepatitis C have been paid a total of 12 million in compensation under an Executive scheme. The figure was revealed as MSPs voted against holding a public inquiry into the contamination of blood products in the 1980s.
